


Redemption

by secooper87



Series: The Child of Balime [57]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-25 16:17:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 21,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3816871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secooper87/pseuds/secooper87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stranded at opposite ends of history, Seo and Jack must stop a great evil from destroying the Slayer Line forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_"Gitaru!" she hissed, her feet racing through the tall brush of the plains. She snatched the little boy up, and dragged him back, her teeth bared in anger. "What are you doing, running away, you silly thing? Your mother is furious!"_

_The little boy squirmed and whined, but she was able to keep a fast hold of him._

_Did not dare let him go._

_"You never let us have any fun, Sineya," the little boy complained. "Just because you're so stupid and ugly that Thairu preferred death than to stay married to you!"_

_Sineya smacked him on the upper arm for that._

_Not very hard._

_But Gitaru was always prone to overreacting, and so he wailed as if she'd struck him with her full force._

_"I should have hit you harder!" Sineya snapped, as she leapt at the boy, trying to drag him into position so she could muffle the noise. "Now be quiet! Or the Shadow Men will hear you."_

_Gitaru went quiet._

_Suddenly intrigued._

_His eyes darting around the landscape, hunting for their fabled cave. As if it would magically appear, and bring with it the demons and monsters they'd heard so much about._

_Gitaru tried to speak, but Sineya kept him quiet, as she led him back to the tribe._

_"Stay away from the Shadow Men, Gitaru," Sineya said. Her voice shook a little, as she did. "They're… dangerous. More dangerous than you know."_

_Gitaru finally managed to struggle out of her grasp, as they reached the edge of the clan._

_His voice rising in a high, excited tone._

_"Is it true that they've captured a demon?" Gitaru asked. But didn't wait for an answer, before he plowed on with his next question. "Do they really live in a magic cave hidden from all sight? Why are there no Shadow Women? Can they really defeat monsters and—?"_

_"They have no women because they are ignorant fools," Sineya replied, as she spotted Gitaru's mother, wandering through the clan, looking for her son. Sineya called out, and the mother looked up._

_Then raced towards them._

_Hugging her boy tightly, tears in her eyes, as she scolded him for being so naughty._

_Sineya stepped away. Letting herself wander away from the reunion, and wander away from all the others, so she could have some time alone. Some time… to think._

_"It's not your job to look after these people," came a voice from nearby._

_Sineya turned, to discover Mawara, the leader of the council of elders. Her hair was long and gray, her face wrinkled and worn. Sineya gave her signs of respect, instinctively._

_Mawara brushed the recognition away. "You run out to save others. Do you believe your elders cannot protect the clan as well as you can?"_

_"I mean no disrespect," Sineya tried. "It's just—"_

_Mawara raised up a hand, and Sineya stopped speaking._

_"You still mourn the loss of your husband," Mawara guessed. "Thairu. You could not protect him, and so… you protect everyone else. To prove your worth."_

_Sineya tried to protest._

_But how could one argue with the elders? Mawara and the other elders always won, in the end._

_"You are still young," said Mawara. "Still a great beauty. Your mourning period has passed. You must move on. Stop trying to heal our people, and instead, heal yourself."_

_"If I needed healing, I'd see the witch-doctor," Sineya snapped, before she could stop herself. Then, hurriedly, began to apologize for her sharp tone and lack of respect._

_But she'd always had a temper._

_Just as her grandmother had, before her._

_Mawara stepped forwards, placing her hands on Sineya's shoulders. Looking deep into her eyes. "You must choose, Sineya," she said. "You can choose to forever be alone. No children, no family. And when you die, Sineya, the spirits of your ancestors will die forever with you."_

_Sineya shuddered._

_"Or you can choose to heal from your loss, remarry, and regain a family," said Mawara. "The choice is yours. But I think… if you do not choose, soon… destiny will choose for you."_

* * *

Seo grabbed onto the console with both hands, as the ship spun through the vortex, bouncing off the sides and making every mechanism inside go haywire.

"It's like he's throwing some kind of temper tantrum, or something," Seo said. Trying, in vain, to regain control. She yanked down a lever, and Oliver's engines gave a piercing scream, the ship jerking Seo and Jack around so that Seo could barely cling on.

"I'm starting to understand why the Doctor was so proud of his ship being 'old'!" Jack shouted, through the noise. "How long does it take for one of these TARDISes to grow out of the 'Terrible Twos'?"

Seo was too busy trying to calm down her ship to answer.

"Sh! Sh! It's okay — we don't have to go to ancient Egypt if you don't want!" she tried. Then, when that was getting nowhere, in a stern voice, "Oliver! You turn this ship right back to the time of the Pharaohs, or I'm giving you the time-out to end all time-outs!"

Oliver wasn't placated.

In fact, the scream of his engines got even louder and more needy.

"Maybe he's doing it to get attention!" Jack offered. "And if we ignore him, he'll get bored and stop!"

Seo gritted her teeth, then launched herself at the bottom of the console. Tearing off paneling, and accessing the systems beneath. "If I can find some sort of… abnormality in the vortex," Seo said, "I can force a materialization, and we can get out and give Oliver time to cool off! Something like…"

"That?" Jack offered, pointing through the window.

She glanced behind herself, at the area he was pointing to.

It was huge. Spanning the entire vortex, like a storm of time and chaos whirling ahead of them, its influence leaking out and spilling into the surrounding vortex.

"Maybe  _that's_  why Oliver's so upset," Seo said. "That looks… bad. Very bad."

"And spreading," Jack confirmed. He chuckled. "Always wondered what these things looked like close up. Think you can land on it?"

Seo fiddled beneath the console. "Emergency materialization… happening…" She waited until they were right on top of the anomaly. "…now!"

A spark, from where Seo was fiddling.

And then the ship ground to a halt.

The ship still.

Silent.

For a few seconds, Seo and Jack just tried to catch their breath. Swatting at the smoke that had suddenly emerged in the console room.

Out the windows, they saw nothing but white.

It wasn't until a loud boom sounded from outside the ship that they both knew… something was out there besides white. Something very bad, which needed investigating.

"Time for adventure!" Seo said, racing to the doors. "Let's go!"

* * *

Seo and Jack found themselves in a white room, with completely white walls, and was empty except for the gigantic piece of machinery aimed at the wall beside Seo and Jack. No… aimed at a fuzzy part of the wall. Seo squinted. It was as if… there were a smudge in the air. A smudge of something Seo couldn't quite identify, but which she could feel burning through each and every one of her senses.

The door to the white room flew open, and a group of armed women surged inside, their guns ready and drawn, immediately pointed straight at Seo and Jack.

"Don't move!" the soldiers shouted. "Drop any and all weapons, and surrender quietly, or we fire!"

Seo and Jack didn't have to wait for the warning. They had already raised their hands.

"No traces of the Wyorin that I can…" said one of the soldiers, waving around a gizmo.

But then… the soldiers all stopped talking. Froze.

Staring at Seo and Jack.

And lowered their weapons.

"A transmat capsule?!" came an angry woman's voice, as an official-looking person charged into the room. "How could — no, no time! Scan them, make sure they don't have any trace of the Wyorin in them. Then get that capsule and the intruders out of here, before the next experiment—"

The official-looking woman stopped in her tracks.

Staring.

Then her face broke out in a delighted smile. "It worked! Oh, I never thought…!" She raced forwards, grabbing up Seo's hand and shaking it, enthusiastically. "Diandarina Olichono. Chief Sergeant Scientist for this operation. It's an honor, oh Mighty Creator!" She knelt down before Seo. "And we throw ourselves at your feet."

Seo wasn't quite sure how to take this.

"Um…" She yanked her hand away from Diandarina. "I think you've got the wrong incarnation. I'm not due to go mad until my tenth life." She stepped back, and gestured at the fuzzy spot. "Now, about this… thing. What are you…?"

Another loud boom, and the whole building shook.

The giant machinery whining and lighting up, in the center of the room.

"Shields are getting weaker!" shouted one of the soldiers. "We don't have time for this!"

"Control, shut the experiment down!" Diandarina shouted back, through a comms link. "She's already here! We don't need to—!"

The building shook, again.

"Something in that transmat capsule must have fused the power circuits!" shouted a voice through the air. "Get everyone out of there, Diandarina! There's no way to power the device off!"

"What are you doing?" Seo shouted. Pointing at the machinery. "What is that? Are you trying to split open the universe?!"

"We were trying to contact  _you_ ," Diandarina retorted. "Or any other aspect of the Creator! We knew your essence was located back in time, so we took the best scientists we had and constructed a time tunnel, with our own Slayer essence as the source. We knew it would find you, aspect of Buffy — at the earliest point in Slayer history."

"What?!" cried Seo.

She tore herself out of Diandarina's grip, and raced towards the fuzzy spot. She knew exactly what it was, now. Could feel it, as she stuck her hand inside the fuzziness. Those idiots!

"You're going to destroy the universe if you keep this up!" Seo shouted, turning back to face the others. "What were you…?"

"Creator!" screamed Diandarina, lunging for Seo, yet again, trying to drag her away. "Get—!"

But the machine suddenly blazed into life.

Shooting a high intensity beam squarely at Diandarina, Seo, and the fuzzy spot on the wall. Turning the two girls fuzzy, themselves, as they froze in place.

And then disappeared.

"What…?!" Jack cried. He ran forwards, ready to leap in himself, but was dragged back by the rest of the soldiers, and hauled out of the room.

"There's no way to shut the chronon accelerator off!" shouted the soldiers. "It's going to…!"

Then the machine blew up.


	2. Chapter 2

Seo groaned, as she opened her eyes.

And found herself in the middle of an African plain. The grass quivering in the wind. The call of distant animals reaching Seo's ears.

She sat up.

And found the crumpled, aged and decayed husk of Diandarina, beside her. Little more than a skeleton, now. Unidentifiable.

"Unstable chronon field," Seo said. She checked both her hearts, and made sure she was all right. Looked like whatever she'd inherited from her father had kept her safe, for the journey. But not poor Diandarina.

Seo got to her feet.

Dusting herself off, and looking around her.

"Where am I?" she asked. " _When_  am I?" She tried to recall what they'd told her, just before she'd been transported here. "They'd linked up a time tunnel, connecting their own time to…"

Seo only just registered movement out of the corner of her eye.

Didn't have time to spin around.

Before she was tackled to the ground by a woman with dark skin and wild-looking hair. Her face heavily painted in ceremonial colors. Her eyes blazing with insanity and power.

"Slay," the woman hissed. Adjusting her hold on Seo, to strike the vital areas. "Slay!"

"…to the time of the first Slayer," Seo squeaked.

* * *

Jack stared at the debris left by the chronon accelerator. The smudge in reality was growing fainter and fainter by the second, and with it, all hope of getting to wherever Seo had gone.

Or… whenever she'd gone.

Nearby, Fexia — the woman who'd taken charge — was in the midst of trying to get damage reports from scientists and to hear out all the soldiers who kept bursting into the room, giving her status updates.

"There's a closed Hellmouth here on the planet Rewota," one of the scientists, Angela, explained to Jack, assessing the damage. "We monitored its energy, and found it issued with almost exactly the same energies we believe the Somedaya Hellmouth once had. We knew this was our last hope."

"Last hope?" said Jack.

Across the room, Fexia was telling her subordinate to "strengthen all shields at the back perimeter, and don't let anyone or anything through. No trace of active Wyorin enters here!"

Jack nodded, slowly.

"Last hope," Jack said. "Gotcha."

"So we built a chronon accelerator," another scientist, Vylena, continued, "and fired unstable chronon particles at the Hellmouth — imbued with our own Slayer essence, of course. The theory being that since the Slayer essence has temporal aspects, this will allow us to go back in time and summon help from an aspect of the First Slayer. Our Creator."

"By which you actually mean… Buffy Summers," Jack said.

"Exactly," the scientists all agreed.

Jack buried his face in his hands. "Oh, boy. Where do I even start with this one?"

"But it worked!" Angela said. She examined a burnt out section of the machinery. "We might not have summoned the flesh-and-blood Creator, but we summoned one of her ethereal aspects. The face is recognizable from ancient footage dating back to the Dalek Wars of the 39th century." She grabbed up a complex instrument, and waved it over the metal. "If we can just find out why the machinery malfunctioned with the arrival of your transmat capsule, and rebuild it to fix that fault, we can get her back, and—"

"Okay, first," said Jack, turning to everyone in the room. "Buffy's not a god. I know her — knew her — back on Earth. She's just as mortal as the rest of us."

The women didn't look impressed.

"Secondly, you guys don't know anything about the history of the Slayer," Jack continued. "Trust me. I heard Buffy talk all about the crazy myths and legends that were constructed about her by the 39th century. Buffy created the Slayer  _Institute_ , not the Slayer  _line_! She wasn't—"

"The 39th century?!" cried Vylena. "What do you think we are, barbarians? We're way past that!"

"The Slayer Institute's been around for over 3,000 years, now," said Fexia. She strode towards Jack, her very stance imposing and threatening. "We're very old. Very powerful. And we  _know_  what parts of our history are legend, and what are fact."

Jack sighed. "And that's why the current theory is that Buffy's a god?"

"She  _was_  mortal, once," Fexia corrected. "She died many times, throughout her life — and was brought back from death, over and over again. But it was because of that process of constant resurrection that the Creator — upon her final death — became something more."

"She became someone who appears across the history of the Slayer Institute," Angela agreed. "Like a phantom! Machines don't pick her up. We can't see her on cameras. And she has many different faces and aspects she puts on, when she manifests. But she always shows up in the Slayers' hour of need — to make sure the Slayer Institute is never corrupted by the forces of darkness."

Oh.

Jack cringed. "Okay, then. I'm starting to understand where the confusion is coming from."

"She always comes when we are in trouble," said Fexia. "But this time… no sign of her. And we got to the point where we needed the Creator, no matter the risk! With a monster like the Wyorin loose, and the Slayer all but driven to extinction, the universe can't hope to last—"

"Whoa, wait," Jack interrupted. "Extinction?" Looking around himself. "You mean… you guys here are all that's left of the…?"

One look at all the solemn faces around him was more than enough confirmation.

"Rewota," said Vylena, quietly. "Last outpost of the Slayer."

In the 51st century, there had been millions of Slayers.

And just a few centuries later…

"How many are you?" Jack asked.

"About five hundred," said Fexia. She looked out at the broken machinery, dejected. "And without the Creator, that number… could get a lot lower, very fast."

Another Slayer poked her head in through the door. "Wyorin activity by the western barrier," she reported. "We suspect another bombardment wave any minute, now."

Fexia spun on her heels, racing out the room. "Using what? Show me!"

A boom, and the whole building shook.

Bits of masonry and plaster falling around them, with the impact.

Jack caught himself, just managed to duck out of the way of falling masonry. No, these weren't stupid idiots playing around with things they didn't understand.

This was a last, desperate attempt to save the Slayer line — and, after that, the universe.

"Divert all power from the experiment into the shields!" shouted Fexia, stumbling out the door towards her other troops. "Double check all air vents and air cyclers. As long as there are Slayers still free of it, the rest of the universe is safe."

Jack turned to the scientist, beside him. "Wyorin?"

"It's… this kind of…," Angela cringed. "We don't know, exactly. But it's evil, and it knows that, after it wipes out the Slayers, it can go after the rest of the universe—"

"—and only the Creator can stop it," Vylena continued. "Trust me. If anyone knows what the Wyorin is, where it came from, and how to defeat it — she will. The Creator knows  _everything_."

"But if you know this 'Wyorin' exists, you've gotta know  _something_  about it," Jack put in.

"We know what it does," said Fexia, poking her head back into the room. Gestured at him to follow her. "I'll show you."

* * *

Seo kicked out, throwing her attacker off of her and jumping to her feet.

Her attacker rolled, then flipped back to a standing position.

"You're… the First Slayer," Seo said, as the woman stalked her. "I… heard about you. From Mom."

The First Slayer didn't speak.

Her eyes were narrow. Her whole self ruled by instinct. A savagery and wildness within her that she couldn't tamper down.

She leapt at Seo, and Seo just barely managed to throw herself out of the way, in time. She tried to catch her breath, but the First Slayer was back on her, twisting her arm around until Seo thought it might break, and looking ready to punch her in the head. Seo ducked the punch, making the First Slayer overbalance and loosen her grip.

Then wriggled out of the way, and turned to face the Slayer, again. Panting.

"I'm not going to hurt you!" Seo insisted. She raised up her hands. Her arm ached. "I mean, look at me! I'm not even fighting back! How am I a threat?"

The First Slayer paused.

Said nothing.

But remained ready to strike again, if she needed.

"My name's Seo," Seo said. "A time traveler. My mom was a Slayer — in the future. She saw what you went through in a vision. Betrayed by your own people. Chained down and infected with something alien and insane. You've been treated cruelly, horribly, and…" She swallowed, hard. "And if Mom were still around, she'd want me to help you. So, please. Let me."

The First Slayer remained still.

Her eyes fixed just beyond where Seo stood. Wide, terrified eyes.

Seo frowned. Feeling like there was something she was missing. "What…?"

"Men…" said the First Slayer. Pointing.

Seo spun around, to discover three African Shamans, assembled behind her. Their staffs raised, in unison, foreign words tumbling from their lips.

Magical power surged around the tips of their staffs, and Seo found herself fixed in place. Unable to move, as they advanced on her, preparing to lead her to who knew where to do who knew what, and—

In a burst of speed, the First Slayer ran at them. Knocking the Shadow Men aside, and trying to fight, kick, struggle against them as hard as she could. The First Slayer moving as if wanting to strangle the life out of the Shadow Men — but some powerful force kept pulling her back.

And Seo could guess what.

Especially as the magic binding Seo in place began to ease, and then vanish, all applied to restraining the First Slayer from destroying the Shadow Men who'd betrayed her. Seo felt her anger rise up, as she saw the First Slayer struggling against the control the Shadow Men had placed on her, even though the First Slayer knew it was futile.

But Seo wasn't about to take futile for an answer.

As she flipped through the air, and joined in.

"Like I thought — your powers are finite!" Seo said, able to break through the magic they tried to weave around her, easily. "You've only got enough to contain her. Not me, too." She managed to grab one of the staffs of the Shadow Men, and snap it in two. "And now, you've only got a fraction of that power."

The First Slayer was able to gain a much better foothold, at that point.

And Seo was able to — rather easily — grab up the last two staffs and break them, as well. Allowing the magic in the air around them to dissipate, almost to a trickle.

"And — oh, look!" said Seo. "Without the staffs, you used all your power up! I figured those staffs were like some great big battery, to make sure you lot never wound down your magical energy, no matter what!"

The First Slayer, now completely freed from their restraint, surged forwards to claw them to death, but Seo caught her and pulled her back.

"No!" Seo said. "They're harmless now. Let them go."

"Revenge," the First Slayer hissed.

"And if you take revenge, you make yourself no better than them!" Seo snapped. She leaned in, closer, to get a firmer grip on the girl. "Mom believed in never killing another human being, no matter how bad they were. If I let you kill them, I betray her memory! And I  _won't_  do that!"

The First Slayer went still.

Dropping her head, and squatting down, as if to acquiesce to Seo's demands.

"Good," Seo decided. Turning back to the Shadow Men. "Now. I think you owe the First Slayer a little apology, for all the—"

Seo didn't see the danger until it was too late.

As the First Slayer, still squatting, picked up a large rock from the ground. And hurled herself at Seo, bashing at her head with all the weight the rock had.

Seo toppled to the ground, as her world faded into black.

* * *

Sineya watched the one called Seo, as she lay on the ground. Unmoving. Eyes shut. Breath heavy. Seo was other. Inhuman. Sineya leaned down, to touch her. Two hearts.

The Shadow Men loomed over them both.

Sineya could not escape their grip on her.

Not for long.

Not since the events that had led to her transformation. Led to her doom. Not since the day she had met the Doctor…


	3. Chapter 3

_Sineya stood for a long time, in the plains beyond her clan. Watching for them._

_She had seen them only once. A glimpse, while she'd been running from a demon. She'd known who they were, without being told._

_The Shadow Men._

_They were the shadows from her nightmares. Wielders of the vital essence. Of magic. They were… saviors… and murderers._

_Sineya saw no sign of the Shadow Men, today._

_As the sun began to set, Sineya sighed and turned to head home. What was the point of this? Even if she did find the Shadow Men… what would she do? Perhaps Mawara was right after all._

_Which was when the wind began to blow._

_And a loud roar filled the air._

_Sineya spun around, her breath coming fast, as she backed away. It sounded like an elephant, but the thing that emerged from the air was blue — as if it were a demon! Blue and tall, making one of the most ghastly noises she'd ever heard, the single eye at its top flashing with an unearthly glow._

_Then the sound stopped._

_And the demon stood there. Unmoving. Except… was it really a demon? Sineya crept towards it, cautiously. Without the noise or the flashing, it looked more like… a blue wooden hut._

_But why would the demons who constantly appeared around their lands decide to send a hut?_

_The door to the hut swung open, and out stepped a very tall, skinny man with foreign-looking clothing. His skin looked sickly and pale, like the victims of the Soul-Sucker Demon they'd encountered, last summer. But he did not act sick. When he walked, he did so with a bounce in his step, as if he hadn't a care in the world._

_"Oh, hello!" the man said. He held out his hand to Sineya. "I'm the Doctor. Nice to meet you! And this is… prehistoric Earth. Africa! Brilliant, Africa. Wide open spaces. Giraffes. You know, I once saved Nelson Mandela from being killed by a Rutan. True story! No one ever believes me, though."_

_Sineya blinked._

_She could understand the words the man used._

_But had no idea what he was saying._

_"You… are not from this world," Sineya guessed. She mustered her courage. "Not human. You are other."_

_The Doctor beamed. "What gave it away?" He pat the blue hut. "Was it the TARDIS? Bet it was the TARDIS. Lovely old girl, but she does make a bit of noise. All adds to her charm, I say!"_

_"You don't look human," Sineya answered. "Your skin is like… sand."_

_The Doctor seemed to find this delightful. "Ah, it's been a while since I went back far enough in Earth's past that I got comments like that!" he mused. "Well, yes. Turns out — sorry, what's your name?"_

_"Sineya."_

_"Turns out, Sineya, at this point in humanity's prehistory, you're right," the Doctor replied. "Most of humanity doesn't look like me. Although I'm betting there's already some genetic variance in melanogenesis going on already in those who've migrated to the north. Nothing compared to what'll happen later, of course. And…" The Doctor caught himself, with the look on Sineya's face. "And you have no idea what I'm talking about."_

_Sineya wasn't able to follow the strange man's words, no._

_But she was far too busy thinking on the stranger, anyways, to care about his words. He spoke their language, but seemed to fill his speech with words she didn't understand, foreign words — spoken with confidence, like words of power._

_He was other-worldly, appeared from nowhere — yet his eyes seemed kind. His manner one of peace and friendship. Even her name had been spoken with affection._

_"You are not a demon," Sineya said. She squinted at him, to get a better look. "Yet you appeared from nowhere."_

_The Doctor shrugged. "I'm here to help."_

_Sineya took a step back, shuddering. "Are you with the Shadow Men?" she whispered. "One of their conjurations?"_

_The Doctor perked up his ears at this. "Shadow Men? What are they? Something nasty?"_

_"They… help us," Sineya replied._

_"But you're still afraid of them," the Doctor observed. He stepped closer to her, looking deep into her eyes. "You're speaking Bantu, and I'm fairly certain the Bantu clans of this time were matriarchal. So why Shadow_ Men _?"_

_Sineya didn't answer._

_"They're powerful enough to conjure things from thin air!" the Doctor continued. "Clearly, they hold some kind of sway over you. What is it? What are they?"_

_"They… they… are fools!" Sineya spat. "Idiots! They may frighten off the monsters from time to time, but — who holds our clan together? Who has the strength of character and strength of mind to govern our people? Only women! Men cannot succeed in these areas! The Shadow Men know nothing!"_

_The Doctor quirked an eyebrow. "Ah. So it's political. Your 'Shadow Men' are a faction who wants to see the end of the matriarchy, and allow men to be in charge." He thrust his hands into his pockets. "And… they 'frighten off monsters'. Interesting. What monsters would those be, Sineya?"_

_Sineya looked at him as if he were stupid. How could he not know the monsters?!_

_"You weren't all that surprised to see the TARDIS appear out of thin air," the Doctor said. "You said I wasn't a demon — as if you were expecting one. Get a lot of extra-dimensional nasties lurking round here?"_

_Sineya laughed, a little. "Of course!" she said. "Why? Doesn't your clan encounter monsters?"_

_"What? Oh! No. Well, yes. Well…" the Doctor scratched the back of his neck, a little sheepishly. "Actually, team TARDIS winds up running into rather a lot of monsters." He shot Sineya a toothy grin. "But the TARDIS isn't exactly ordinary. And if you're getting monsters here…"_

_Sineya didn't know what to do, or even what to say, as the Doctor brought out a small, silver tube, one that glowed with bright blue power and made an unpleasant noise as he waved it in the air._

_He checked the tube, again._

_"Right! Well! There's your answer!" The Doctor leapt over to Sineya, showing her the silver tube. "You've got a bit of a dimensional split forming, right 'round this area. All sorts of creatures and aliens and devices and great big nasties popping up out of thin air, here." He dropped the metal tube by his side. His face turning wistful. "And one thing… of Gallifreyan origin."_

_"Gallifrey — is that the name of your clan?" said Sineya._

_The Doctor grinned. "Top marks!" He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Truth is… I'm looking for something — or even someone — that might have fallen through a breach in reality." He frowned. "Funny, that. I was sure it was 'someone'. A woman. But I should have picked up a telepathic signal by now. And yet…" His eyes scanned the horizon. "There's nothing."_

_Sineya saw the sadness that lay behind his eyes._

_And knew — he had lost someone, too. Just as she had, when Thairu had died. He had lost someone special, and it made him feel isolated and alone._

_"Is that why you came here?" Sineya asked. "To search for your…" Man seeking woman, so only one natural conclusion. "…to search for your lover?"_

_The Doctor started at this. "What? No! Oh, no, certainly not! It's more… well…" He hesitated. Trying to pick his words, carefully. "Something's about to happen, here, Sineya. Something that will create the Slayer Line. And whatever it is… it's tied to my own people. I'm_ sure _." He ran a hand through his hair, gritting his teeth. "I thought someone had fallen through! A Time Lady. A survivor. But if there's no mental signal… then what? A metamorphic symbiosis regenerator? One of the looms? Or…?"_

_He trailed off._

_His face growing even more sad._

_It took a long while before he spoke, after that._

_"There's this… friend of mine," the Doctor said, at last. "A girl. A human, like you. Just ran into her, short time ago. Again. Well, sort of 'again'. Bit complicated." He cringed. "Thing is… I have another chance, with this version of her. I can_ save  _her!" He turned back to Sineya. "And that's why I'm here."_

_Sineya nodded._

_Redemption. The chance to make amends to the spirits you have wronged._

_Yes, Sineya understood that. She understood it far too well._

_"Then I will help you," Sineya decided. Offering him her hand. "It seems we both have redemption to find."_

* * *

"Bring the demon girl to us," the Shadow Men commanded Sineya — their words bringing her out of memories and into the present. "Her sacrifice will strengthen the Slayer within you."

Sineya bristled, the inhuman girl in her arms. She felt anger. Hate. Destruction and a need to kill, running through her. That was the Slayer — and it was the scream that never ended inside her head. But the old Sineya was still there.

And she would not let them sacrifice another.

"Gone," Sineya said. The words so difficult to speak, past the alien influence within her that tried to dominate every part of her. She pointed to where the clan had been, once. "Gone! No point! No more!"

The Shadow Men understood.

"Our people may have fled," the Shadow Men replied. "But we will find others. Remember, Slayer: we are the reason the world lives. This is the prophecy. This is the truth."

"End this!" Sineya shouted. "End it!"

Except she knew the alien influence inside herself would  _never_  end. The hostility and anger and insanity within her would last forever. Sineya knew she'd fight to protect the Earth and all of humanity — only until the day when it all became too much. And then… she'd let the monsters defeat her.

But she wouldn't let the cycle begin again.

She threw the Shadow Men away from her, and — using strength of will, alone — managed to run from them. Far, far away, far as she could go, as she fought against the evil that the Shadow Men had used to infect her mind. The evil that wanted to destroy this poor, innocent creature Sineya held in her arms.

The girl who had shown kindness; a demon who wasn't a demon.

The girl who looked like the Doctor.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, everyone, for the delays in posting. I'm a little sick, right now. :-(
> 
> There's been some confusion about this story, so I'm going to clarify. I know this is lazy of me, because I should do it inside the story and not in an author's note, but I'm currently writing a story about King Arthur, and am not in the mood.
> 
> So here's the explanation!
> 
> This story is actually 3 stories, interconnected. All of which take place at different times.
> 
> 1\. The italicized story - which is the story of Sineya, before she became the Slayer. This takes place, from the Doctor's point of view, during his 10th incarnation, directly after chapter 1 of "Don't Be." Remember, the Doctor traces the Slayer back through time and eventually discovers that its origins are a baby Time Lord, rescued from the Time War, which somehow wound up on Earth. In "Don't Be", the Doctor tells this to Buffy, explaining that he didn't save the baby because the existence of the Slayer was too important.
> 
> 2\. The story of Jack and the Slayers from the future, who are fighting the Wyorin. I think this is pretty self-explanatory. Yes, it does make reference to some Big Finish Audio adventures, if you've heard them. If not... don't worry about it. I explain.
> 
> 3\. The story of Seo and the Slayer. This takes place after Sineya has become the Slayer. Sineya is remembering the italicized story. Seo knows about Sineya's story because Buffy and Dawn (presumably) told her.
> 
> I hope this clarifies things.
> 
> I'm still feeling sick, and am going to lie down.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Jack stared at the mutated human forms on the scanner. So many women, transformed so that their skin was a charred black, their eyes empty and dead-looking. Their hair burned away. And instead of speaking, they growled and roared.

They were vicious.

Seemed mindless.

But they were attacking the energy dome around the Rewota stronghold with strategy and precision.

"It started a few years ago," said Fexia. "Some of the Slayers started getting… sick. We thought it was a new virus."

"We didn't really think anything of it, at first," said Angela. Her eyes fixed on the screen. "But whenever people died from this thing… they rose from the dead looking like this."

"With every victim, the Wyorin grew stronger," Vylena added. "At some point, it became obvious that the Wyorin was a separate entity, with its own agenda."

"A sort of… sentient black-smoke creature," Angela agreed.

Jack nodded, slowly. "A sentient black smoke… that only infects Slayers?"

"Oh, it can infect anyone," Fexia countered. Turning back to Jack. "But for some reason — it's not really interested in the rest of the universe until it gets all the Slayers, first."

"We thought maybe… when our Creator first cast the spell that activated the Slayers, using the Holy Scythe… she accidentally mixed some other demon race into the Slayer Line," Angela offered. "Just a teensy, tiny little bit in every girl, to make us better fighters. And we've only now gotten to the point where there are enough Slayers for the Wyorin to actually become apparent."

"Or… maybe this 'Wyorin' is one single creature that got scattered by the Scythe," Jack muttered, leaning forwards in his chair, "and is trying to reassemble all the pieces of itself before it keeps going."

No wonder these Slayers were so desperate.

"You know the Creator," said Vylena, turning to Jack. "Do you know anything? Can you help us defeat the Wyorin?"

Jack cringed.

Because — this one he  _did_ know. How Buffy activated all those Slayers. And what the Scythe had been fighting, just before it was used on the Slayer Line.

"The First Evil," Jack said. "Gotta be. Something Buffy did… must have… shoved bits of it throughout the Slayer Line. Making it dormant, but always a threat." He put his head in his hands. "Which means… we need to get Seo back. Right now."

"Seo?" said Fexia, turning to him.

"Yeah, Buffy's kid," said Jack. "She's the face-changing, doesn't-show-up-on-machines person you've been mistaking for Buffy this whole time." He crossed his arms. "And she's also the only person in the universe that scares the hell out of monsters like the First Evil. Or… so says Buffy."

Most people stared at Jack.

Stunned.

"The Creator… had a child?" one Slayer asked.

Fexia just dropped her head, with a tired sigh. "None of this is going to help us!" she insisted. "We had to deflect all energy from the experiment into the shields. And none of us know how long we have before the Wyorin inside us becomes dominant, and Rewota is compromised, too."

Jack spun on them.

"You mean… you could flip into Wyorin Mode, at any moment, too?" Jack scanned the crowd. Fear imprinted on all their faces. "Oh, this just gets better and better!"

"We have systems to monitor potential Wyorin conversion, at all times," said Angela. She activated some controls on the board, and an array sprung forwards into the air. "Anyone showing possible conversion signs… gets frozen, immediately. We're not taking any chances."

"So you've got five hundred Slayers in here," said Jack, "but some of them are frozen? Half-way through conversion?" He shook his head. "Just how many are still alive and able to fight?"

"Little over a hundred," muttered Fexia.

Yeah.

Definitely desperate.

Jack got up from his seat, pacing, as he tried to think through options. None of them looked very good. "I'm starting to see why you resorted to nearly tearing up the universe to get Buffy here," Jack said. "You're facing something eating up the Slayer Line from the inside out, and you have no idea what it is, where it came from, or how to fight against it."

They all nodded.

"And, considering how little Buffy liked to talk about that year of her life," Jack muttered, "I'm not much more help." He looked up at them. "No chance that, if I ran outside, that your Wyorin would infect me?"

The Slayers looked at each other.

Then shook their heads.

"Why would you even want it to?" Angela asked. "You got some kind of death wish?"

Jack winked. "Can't die, actually. Neat trick. Breaks the ice at parties."

Once again, the Slayers all exchanged looks.

Not sure how to react to this, or even if they should believe it.

"If it'd infect me, maybe I could help figure out where it is and where it came from," Jack offered. "But since… that won't work…"

He trailed off.

Thinking it all through, fast as he could.

Then shook his head.

"Nothing else for it," Jack decided. "We gotta divert energy away from the shields, and back into the time experiment, again. Worth screwing up the universe, if we can get Seo back."

Fexia sprung up from her chair. "Are you crazy?" she shouted. "That shield is the only thing keeping the Wyorin out!"

Jack glanced over his shoulder. "It's already  _in_ ," he said. "It's in all of you, just waiting for a chance to become dominant." He shot Angela and Vylena a charming smile. "That means your best bet of getting the info you need to defeat this thing is by letting my two lady-friends, here, reassemble that machine and get Seo back."

"We don't have another chronometric filter," said Angela. "It's impossible."

"She's right," Vylena agreed. "We just don't have the replacement parts to create a working time machine."

Jack gave a wink. "You want time travel tech? I got loads."

* * *

Seo woke up.

She found herself tied up and restrained. And somewhere dark. A makeshift shelter, looked like, complete with a fire pit in the center. The fire long since gone, now only glowing embers, faintly illuminating the First Slayer, who stood above it.

Eating something meaty-looking that she'd cooked, earlier.

Seo looked around herself, straining to make out the images of the Shadow Men or anyone else, nearby. But there was no one. Or, at least, no one she could see.

"Safe," the First Slayer said, noticing Seo's panic.

Seo's eyes fell back on the First Slayer. "Safe? After you brained me with a rock? I don't think so." She tried to maneuver herself to break the ropes binding her as silently as possible. "Why am I still alive?"

The First Slayer stopped eating. Met Seo's eyes with her own. "Mother spirit."

Seo started. "What?"

The First Slayer gave a shriek of frustration, as she tried to gather the right words to explain herself. She wore an expression on her face that Seo recognized — one of struggling to pull something back, before it consumed you forever.

"You… love… miss… family," the First Slayer managed. "Mother's spirit… still alive… in your memory. That's good."

Seo looked away.

Forcing down the miserable sorrow she felt whenever she thought about… Mom. What had happened. No matter how long Seo kept her mom's memory alive for, it wouldn't change the fact that she had been the reason Mom was gone.

"And the Shadow Men?" Seo asked.

The First Slayer gave a low growl. Like a raging animal. "Cannot kill the Shadow Men," she seethed. "Can't ever kill the Shadow Men." She surged to her feet, sudden animalistic anger overtaking her. "Alone! All alone! Puppet of the Shadow Men. Hate the Shadow Men! They killed me. He killed me!" She clawed at the air. "The Doctor killed me! He killed everyone! He should be—" the First Slayer shuddered back. "No. No, he's my friend. He's…!"

She gave a pained scream, as she doubled over.

"That's it!" Seo shouted. She struggled against the restraints, trying to break free. "Fight the Slayer inside of you! Whatever that insane bully thinks,  _you're_  the one in charge. Not her!"

The First Slayer looked up. "Not… fighting… the Slayer," she whispered, strain in her voice. "The Wyorin. It's… so strong. All the time!"

Seo blinked.

Frowned.

"Wyorin?" she asked.


	5. Chapter 5

_Sineya had been with the Doctor when, together, they had found the Shadow Men._

_They hid behind some foliage. Watching, as the three Shadow Men knocked their staffs against the rock, and disappeared into their realm._

_"Ooh, now that's interesting," the Doctor said, leaping up and bounding over to where the Shadow Men had disappeared. He smacked his lips, thoughtfully. "Taste that tang in the air. Psychic teleport! Blimey, those three must be powerful telepaths. Most people couldn't manage anything like this."_

_He took out his silver tube, again, and pointed it at the air._

_Which shimmered blue._

_"Fortunately for the both of us, though," the Doctor continued, shooting Sineya a grin and a wink, "I'm brilliant." He fiddled with something on the silver tube, then pointed it at the air, again. "Should find a way, soon, to loop the remaining energy and drag us through after them. Who did you lose to the Shadow Men, by the way?"_

_Sineya started. Caught off-guard by the sudden and casual change of topic. "What…?"_

_"Redemption, you said," the Doctor replied. "You lost someone to the Shadow Men. Someone you cared about." He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Didn't you?"_

_Sineya said nothing for a long time._

_"Thairu," Sineya said, at last. "My husband. He…" She looked off, into the distance. "I was his wife. Therefore, it was my duty to protect him. I failed."_

_The Doctor said nothing. But his face melted into sympathy._

_"We found him, dead, by the lake," said Sineya. "He'd been killed, then left in the open for the animals to feed on. He was a kind man — the man I loved. He didn't deserve that."_

_"And you think the Shadow Men…?"_

_"I know they did it," Sineya replied. Her voice growing bitter. "He and I fought, the night before. He insisted that_ he _should give_ me _orders, that only with men in charge will the monsters be defeated. I told him he was being ridiculous, and he stormed off, shouting that he'd join the ranks of the Shadow Men."_

_"But he never came back," the Doctor concluded._

_Sineya shook her head._

_The Doctor stopped the noise coming from the silver tube. His face very serious. "I'm sorry about your husband," he said, "but this isn't a vendetta. We'll stop the Shadow Men, but we won't kill them."_

_"I want redemption," Sineya retorted. "Not revenge. I want to make sure no one else dies because of their evil magic. And I want to make sure — whatever the Shadow Men are planning — that they never succeed."_

_The Doctor grinned at her._

_And they went through._

* * *

_The sensation left Sineya feeling faint and dizzy, as she found herself in a cave. She had never seen the realm of the Shadow Men, but she could feel the buzz of their magic surrounding her, in this place. And knew, instinctively, that she had arrived at the site of her husband's death._

_"And now should come the easy bit," the Doctor said. He looked down at the metal tube, confused. As he adjusted things on its side. He tried shining it around, but that only made the frown on his face bend, deeper. "Or… the tricky bit." He lowered the tube, down by his side. Closed his eyes, concentration pouring over him._

_Then he gritted his teeth._

_"No good!" he hissed. "No Gallifreyan technology. And still no psychic trace! At this close a range, must be able to pick up something of—"_

_Sineya heard the footsteps approaching._

_And dragged the Doctor into a hiding spot, behind some boulders. She shushed him, as they sat, waiting. One of the Shadow Men walking into the entrance of the cave, and looking around to see who had caused all the noise. The man scanned his eyes across the cave._

_Then turned, and left._

_"He must have seen us!" Sineya decided, her voice a whisper. "He didn't even look twice! That much noise—!"_

_"Well, they're self-confident, aren't they?" the Doctor replied, hopping back to his feet. "They think they're the only ones with the power to get in here. So, logically, there can't possibly be intruders. QED."_

_Sineya smacked herself on the head. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"_

_"Oh, you'd be surprised how many villains I've foiled with that kind of logic," the Doctor said. Heading off towards the entrance to the next chamber of the cave. "Daleks. Cybermen. The Master — a number of times! Ego the size of—!"_

_Sineya held up a hand, shushing the Doctor._

_Listening, in the silence of the cave._

_"Can you hear that?" she mouthed._

_The Doctor tilted his head. Considering._

_Then a look of utter horror spread across his face. As he seemed to realize… "It's a baby."_

_"A baby's screams," Sineya agreed. "Yes."_

_But the Doctor wasn't sticking around to hear Sineya out. He was already running towards the noise, fast as he could, something dark and fathomless deep within his eyes._

_He stopped some steps away from the group._

_But near enough to be able to see the tiny little baby that the Shadow Men were waving sticks and staffs over. Their incantations just making the baby scream, more and more._

_Sineya looked between the baby._

_And the Doctor._

_"She's like you," Sineya breathed._

_He turned back to her. And she could see every ounce of horror and devastation in his eyes._

_"Not quite," he muttered._

_Turned away._

_And left._

* * *

_It was only after they'd left the cave of the Shadow Men that Sineya finally managed to corner the Doctor and demand what was going on._

_"It's one of your clan, isn't it?" said Sineya. "One of your own! I know the Shadow Men — if you leave the baby in their hands, they will kill it!"_

_The Doctor was silent._

_Sitting down on a rock, his whole posture slumped, his head bent in defeat._

_"Do you care so little for the life of a baby?" Sineya shouted. Grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him. "For one of your own? The spirits of your ancestors would be ashamed of you."_

_"More so than you know," the Doctor said. He gave a long, sad sigh. Then looked up at Sineya. "My home was destroyed in a war. My people all killed. I had to be the one to end it." His eyes flicked over to the spot where they'd come from. The teleport. "Like you — I wanted redemption. But… I won't find it by rescuing that baby."_

_Sineya shook him, even harder._

_As this made less and less sense to her._

_"And why not?" she demanded. "Are you out to seek revenge? Is that all you men think about — wars and killing and fighting? It's barbaric! If you're the only one of your clan left, then that baby is the only way your people will live again! You_ must _save her, and teach her the ways of your Gallifrey."_

_"It's not that simple," the Doctor said. He took Sineya's hands, and forced them off of her shoulders. "I've seen the future, Sineya. I know what happens to that baby, and what it means. Her death will create the Slayers. A group of world-saving women, defending the Earth at every point in its history. If I save her… I doom your world, Sineya."_

_Sineya took her hands away._

_"No," she decided. "You're talking like_ them _. The Shadow Men. You're talking like all the death and sacrifice is a_ good _thing! It doesn't matter what visions or omens you've had — we'll find another way to save the future. Our future should never require sacrificing a baby!"_

_The Doctor was very quiet._

_His face twisted into miserable pain and sorrow._

_"How old are you?" Sineya demanded, thinking fast._

_The Doctor shot his head up. "I'm sorry?"_

_"The look in your eyes is like the Elders of my clan," said Sineya. "And I know the demons from other worlds are sometimes ancient, with younger-looking bodies. Are you like them? Do your people live forever?"_

_The Doctor considered. "Well, not forever…" he said. "But a long time. Very long. Thousands of years, maybe more."_

_That was more time than Sineya had ever thought about, all at once, before._

_"Then save the baby!" Sineya insisted. "Raise her here, and teach_ her _to save the world, instead! Wouldn't that be better than the alternative?"_

_The Doctor gave a long, weary sigh. "It's not that simple."_

_"And if she lives, there will be others!" Sineya continued. "She can begin your clan again. Create her own family, full of children to carry on her legacy. Even when she dies, her children and grandchildren will carry on her spirit inside of them. They will all save the world in her name."_

_"And if it were anyone else, I'd consider that!" the Doctor retorted. "But… it's not just what she is. It's_ who _she is." He pointed back to the spot where they'd found the teleport. "I know that baby, Sineya. I heard about her, when I joined the War. She isn't a child — she's a trap."_

_Sineya didn't understand._

_"If she escaped the Time War," said the Doctor, "then it's because the Wyorin brought her. It escaped because of her._ Inside _of her. And if the Wyorin ever becomes dominant… the entire universe is dead."_


	6. Chapter 6

The whole base on Rewota shook, as another bombardment began.

"Energy shield is being depleted, fast," said one of the Slayers to Fexia. "I don't know how much more of this we can take."

Fexia punched a button on the intercom. "You almost ready in there?"

"Almost!" shouted Angela.

"Fexia — Commander," another Slayer said, looking over the controls. "If we divert energy into the experiment… we'll lose the shields. The Wyorin will get in."

Fexia's face was hard.

But rigid.

"We'll be converted instantly," said another Slayer. "And the Slayers we froze. There'd be no chance for the universe, then."

"And if we don't… how long before everyone here gets converted, anyways?" Fexia stared her troops in the eyes. "Harkness is right. We've got to break the stalemate. We have to bring back this… Seo person."

"According to Harkness, she isn't even the Creator!" one of the Slayers chimed in. "She's just the Creator's… daughter."

Fexia spun on the Slayer who'd spoken.

"And which of them saved the Slayer Institute over and over again, in its time of need?" Fexia demanded. "Which of them traveled through time and space to make sure we'd always be able to defend the universe?" She crossed her arms. "I don't care if her name is Buffy Summers or not. She's saved the Slayers in the past, she'll do it again, now."

The intercom crackled. "Ready!" came Vylena's voice.

Fexia turned back to the control panel. Taking a slow, deep breath, as she reached towards the controls that operated the power flow.

"Diverting power… now," she said.

And pulled down the lever.

The lights in the base flickered, and alarms began to blare. Fexia could already hear the sounds of her troops donning gas masks and arming themselves for a fight they couldn't win.

The base shook, as a blast made half the ceiling come down, across the room from them.

"Shields down!" shouted one of the Slayers.

Fexia dropped her gas mask into place — as much good as  _that_  ever did them. Checked her gun, to make sure she had enough ammo to drain the hell out of whatever bit of the Wyorin's army came at her, first.

Unless the Wyorin, itself, came for her.

Then… she was done for.

"Give the experiment as much time as you can," Fexia commanded. She aimed the gun for the part of the ceiling that had fallen in. "And just pray this works."

* * *

"Ready!" Vylena reported, through the intercom.

Angela was still looking over the machine, a worried expression on her face. "As ready as we  _can_  be," she muttered. Shook her head. "There's no way this is ever going to work."

"Hey, it'll work fine," said Jack.

Angela turned on him. "When you said you had time travel tech on you," she said, "I didn't think you meant a vortex manipulator three centuries out of date!"

Jack glanced back at where Oliver had once been.

Truth be told, he  _had_  been intending to borrow some parts from Oliver… but the moment they walked into the room, the ship had just… disappeared. All by itself.

Jack could only hope it was headed off to get Seo.

But he suspected it hadn't. Maybe it had seen the future, knew how little chance the Slayers here had of surviving — and had used its last residual ounce of energy to transport itself away from here.

"Could still work," Jack replied.

"Your VM didn't even travel through time before it was hooked up to the chronon accelerator," said Angela. She shook her head. "But I guess… we've got no choice."

The base shook, bits of the roof falling down around them, as the lights to the rest of the base cut out, and alarms began to sound.

The machinery in the experiment room buzzed into life, warming up for another go.

"Everyone get back," said Vylena, dragging them away from it, and dropping down a visor over her eyes. "Oscillators charging, diothermic regulator getting into phase. Thirty seconds."

Angela dropped her own visor down, then handed a pair of goggles to Jack.

He slipped them on, and could see the readouts of everything going on in the machine, on the inside of the goggles. The whole room was dimmed through the lenses.

From outside, they could hear screams, and the sounds of a battle.

"Chrononic feedback loop initiated," said Vylena. Glanced over at Angela. "Wyorin's in?"

Angela slammed open a panel, and flipped on a number of circuits. "Emergency air cycling protocols engaged," she reported. The doors all hissed, as a bulkhead dropped down, and the doors turned into airlocks. She spun back around. "Entropy factor increasing. Fifteen seconds."

"Interior temperature at 5,000 Helvios and rising," said Vylena. She waved her hand in the air, to create a view-screen, and inputted some adjustments to the program. "Corrections made. Dropping to 4,000."

"Keep it steady," said Angela. "Ten seconds."

They all nearly held their breaths, as the seconds ticked down. The alarms continuing to blare, outside. The screams of the dying continuing to echo through the bulkhead, into the room.

"Steady at 4,000 Hevlios," said Vylena. "Critical point in four… three… two…"

A fizzle.

And then… the power to the machine cut out.

"What?!" said Angela, springing forwards. She grabbed for the machine, but yanked back her hand, shaking it out. "Damn it! 4,000 Helvios!"

Vylena removed her visor. "What went wrong?" she asked, rushing over to Angela. "The visor didn't report any problems."

"I've got no idea," said Angela. "The machine itself is working perfectly. The chronons are just acting… strangely."

Vylena double checked readouts on an air-screen projection. "You're right," she agreed. "Like there's some powerful outside force acting on them. Like… a fixed point in time."

Jack hesitated.

"The Wyorin invasion is fixed?" said Angela. She looked around herself. "But… no! Even so, this is supposed to be a temporally shielded location! It couldn't…!"

"We have no idea what the Wyorin can do!" Vylena cried. "After all this time fighting it, we're still just barely scratching the surface of its abilities! And every time it absorbs another Slayer, it gets stronger."

Jack turned towards the door. "Oh, I doubt it's the Wyorin," he said. "Sounds like it's my cue to leave, ladies."

They turned on him. "You? But why…?"

Jack had no sooner opened the door before Fexia came bursting through, slamming it behind her and re-engaging the lock the moment she did.

"Whatever insights that 'Seo' of yours has, we need them now!" Fexia said. "The Wyorin is in. Everyone in the freezers has woken up — fully converted. And we're all dropping like flies."

She stopped, as she realized the room was empty apart from themselves.

Fexia's jaw dropped open.

"You mean… it didn't…?!" Fexia shouted.

"We're working on it!" said Angela, fiddling with the device. "Just give us a little more…"

The door burst in, slammed off its hinges — struck by an impossible force on the other side. A group of the transformed Slayers howled, just beyond the door, and began to race inside.

"Don't let the device fall into enemy hands," said Fexia, opening fire. "Whatever you do!"

Vylena rushed through the program, fiddling with bits and pieces. Jack could already hear the equipment humming, as it warmed up for another go.

"No, wait, I think… I got something!" Vylena said. "It's a long-shot, but maybe…!"

"Don't bring the Creator back here, right now!" Angela said, pulling Vylena away. "You'll kill her, along with all the rest of us."

Jack looked at the three Slayers around him.

And had an idea.

"Fexia, Angela, Vylena," Jack said, grabbing them all by the arm and dragging them right in front of the beam. "Time to make an escape."

Angela struggled. "But… you can't…!"

The army lunged for them.

As the device flared into sudden life…

And Jack and the others found themselves tumbling through the vortex, at top speed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I wrote this before Dark Eyes 3 came out. I think it still works. Meh, whatever.
> 
> Still sick, but hopefully will feel better soon. :-(
> 
> Trying not to let you guys down, though!
> 
> Enjoy!

 

"What's the Wyorin?" Seo asked the First Slayer. "What does it have to do with the Slayer? Or you?"

The First Slayer managed to regain control of herself.

Looked up at Seo with terrified eyes.

"The Shadow Men… didn't know it was there," the First Slayer said, trembling as she spoke. "They didn't know! But the Doctor knew. It escaped a war… inside a baby. And now… it's eating me alive."

Seo thought back to her own experience — of slowly being burned away into nothing, as the Weapon inside of her took over.

And gave the First Slayer a kind, sad smile.

"What's your name?" Seo asked. "Back when you were human, I mean. What did people call you?"

The First Slayer was still for a long moment.

"Sineya," the First Slayer whispered. She hesitated. "I… haven't been Sineya… for a long time."

"No, you've always been Sineya," Seo insisted. Managing to finally get a proper grip on the restraints, and tear them open. She sat up, rolling her wrists and trying to get the circulation back into her hands. "And you're still Sineya, now. You'll always be Sineya." She undid the restraints around her ankles, then jumped to her feet.

Stumbled, as pins and needles ached in her ankles.

But managed to cross over to Sineya.

"Whatever the Wyorin is… we're going to fight it together," Seo insisted. "I promise." She met Sineya's eyes with her own. "But first, you have to tell me about it."

Sineya said nothing.

"You… know what it is, right?" Seo double-checked.

"The Doctor told me," Sineya muttered. Her hand shook, as she tried to push some wild hair out of her eyes. "But… I didn't know… it'd be so  _strong_."

Seo could imagine.

Magic Monks or Shadow Men — looks like neither had figured out the full consequences of their actions until it was too late.

"Tell me," Seo begged. "Please. I want to help."

Sineya looked up.

And… with great strain… told Seo exactly what the Doctor had told her, so long ago.

* * *

_"In the lead-up to the Time War, my own people found a sentient gas called the Eminence," the Doctor explained, "which liked to kill people and infect them with a segment of itself. Very distinctive to look at, those infected lot were — calcified skin burning orange, red eyes, always spouting on about 'the will of the Eminence'. 'Infinite Warriors', they were called." He gave an entirely mirthless laugh. "The Time Lords figured out that, using the Eminence, they could displace the Daleks from history. Maybe even defeat them."_

_Sineya shook her head. "But wouldn't doing so make this Eminence even_ harder  _to defeat than your enemies?"_

 _"Yep — like fighting fire with atomic weapons. That's how I put it, way back when," the Doctor agreed. He ran a hand through his hair, and sighed. "Well, long story short, the Time Lords' Eminence idea wound up being a bad one. By the time the War actually started, they'd long since abandoned it._ But _, the Daleks hadn't forgotten."_

_Sineya frowned._

_"The Daleks — well, Davros, mostly — created their own version," said the Doctor. "Something very like the Eminence, but which thought like the Daleks. And was trained to combat Time Lords, specifically. It was… a black gas. Called the Wyorin."_

_"Wyorin," Sineya repeated._

_"This was all before I ever started fighting in the Time War," said the Doctor. "But I knew the stories. It'd inhibit regeneration, turn Time Lords into burnt husks — intent on killing our friends. I even saw one, once."_

_Sineya nodded. "The undead."_

_"The Time Lords had just begun breeding soldier-babies for the War," the Doctor continued, "in order to sure up the numbers lost in battle. Particularly after the Wyorin was released. To stop the Wyorin, the Time Lords took one of these soldier-babies, and turned her into something more. A trap for the Wyorin."_

_"One to slay the undead," Sineya offered._

_The Doctor nodded. "One to slay the…" He stopped. Looked at her, curiously. "Slayer of the Undead. Of course. Should have worked that one out, earlier."_

_"But the baby," Sineya insisted. "What about the baby? How could she defeat this Wyorin?"_

_"Well… not exactly 'defeat'…" the Doctor blew a breath out of his cheeks, running another hand through his hair. "I said 'trap', and I meant 'trap.' The Time Lords altered something in the baby's biology, then lured the Wyorin to the planet Puron, where the baby was. When the Wyorin infected that baby, the something in her biology activated. It drained the Wyorin's energy, so she soaked up everything of the Wyorin across the universe. And then… when it was all contained inside her… the Wyorin found itself unable to leave her."_

_"This… evil spirit," said Sineya, "is trapped inside that baby?"_

_"Oh, yes!" said the Doctor. "And — just to make sure it was really gone — my people time-looped the whole of Puron, trapping both the baby and the Wyorin in perpetual infancy."_

_Sineya didn't quite understand how one looped time, but… she nodded, anyways. Wanting to hear more._

_"An impenetrable trap for the Wyorin," the Doctor said. "Or… so we thought." He ran his hands over his face. "It was a long war, Sineya. Temporally complicated. Bits got looped and rewritten and remapped and then looped again. A war filled with duplicates and alternates and all those wibbly wobbly, timey whimey bits that shouldn't exist, but do anyways. The Wyorin could have gone back through time and freed itself. Maybe it even used that baby to somehow trick the Time Lock, and escape the War."_

_At this point, Sineya couldn't follow the Doctor's explanation at all._

_Odd thing was, he kept using words she knew — but used them in ways that meant nothing._

_"My point is… that baby contains one of the most destructive forces this universe has ever known," said the Doctor. "Something to rival the Eminence, itself. That's why she was never meant to grow up. It's why she was stuck inside that time loop."_

_"But why can't we save her?"_

_"If we save her… over time, she'll change," the Doctor said. "Oh, she'll start out as a Gallifreyan — perhaps a somewhat insane one, considering what she's been through — but it won't last forever. Someday, the Wyorin in her will become dominant. The Slayer will_ become  _the Wyorin — and when that happens, everything else in the universe will die."_

_"But… if this is some kind of sickness, within her… surely there's a cure!" Sineya said._

_"It's not a sickness, it's more like… possession," the Doctor argued. "A bit like… a demon taking you over."_

_Sineya looked at him like he was stupid._

_Clearly, that was the definition of the word "sickness"._

_What kind of fool didn't know that evil spirits possessing you made you sick?_

_"And I wouldn't know where to start," the Doctor admitted. "The Daleks saw how the Eminence was defeated — so the Wyorin doesn't have that weakness. It'd take me a while to work out a cure… and, well, if I'm around that baby too long…_ I'll _probably change, too. A dead husk, working for evil." He looked down at his hands. "Doesn't bear thinking about, really."_

 _"Then_ I'll _save her," Sineya replied._

_The Doctor looked up. Startled._

_"We both want redemption," Sineya said. "This is how we'll find it. I'll take the baby back from the Shadow Men. Raise her as part of the clan, as if she were my own. She'll follow in the traditions of my ancestors, and I'll instill their spirit within her." She crossed her arms. "Meanwhile, you'll find a way to drive out this… Wyorin inside of her. With you and my own people, working together, we must be able to save her!"_

_The Doctor's jaw fell open._

_For a moment, couldn't even speak._

_"No," he said, at last. "It's too great a risk. It could infect you, too."_

_"But it might not," Sineya argued._

_The Doctor hesitated. She could see, from one look at his face, that he didn't know whether or not the Wyorin would go after her. Or if it'd reserve itself for members of the Doctor's clan._

_"Please," said Sineya, leaning down to face him. "Allow me my redemption. I could not protect my husband. But I will protect the last member of your clan." She put a hand on his arm. "Give me the baby. I will teach her to be good."_


	8. Chapter 8

In the 57th century, the Wyorin squirmed, as it absorbed the last few Slayers in this era. The Time Lords had sought to trap it, but it had found an escape. Sineya had sought to banish it from herself — but it had found a way to live despite Sineya's efforts.

Even Buffy Summers, scattering it into small, dormant particles inside so many Slayers across the world, and later the universe, had not destroyed the Wyorin.

Its moment of release had finally come. The Wyorin could make every dormant bit of itself grow alive, within the Slayers. And with the absorption of Rewota, the Wyorin was finally going to be strong enough, alive enough, to be able… to turn the rest of the universe… into…

As the last Slayer on Rewota was absorbed, though, the Wyorin knew something was wrong.

No.

No!

There were three others, who had fled the Wyorin's influence by disappearing into the vortex. The Wyorin seethed and writhed, in the air, as it realized it had been cheated.

It burst across its many followers.

Demanding they do its bidding, and load the Wyorin into the chronon accelerator.

The Slayers of the Wyorin complied.

As they started up the machine, and the chronons began to accelerate around the Wyorin. Yes, the Wyorin had a fine army of Slayers, in the 57th century. He could leave them here, to continue to exterminate the universe.

The Wyorin, itself, would head back in time. First, to absorb the Slayers it had missed.

And then… to seek out the one Slayer who had so nearly destroyed it.

The human called Sineya.

It would find her… and infect her properly, this time. It would not let her dominate it again! It would not let…!

The chronon accelerator fired.

Shooting the Wyorin through the Vortex.

But no sooner had the Wyorin entered the Vortex, it sensed something else, nearby. Something it knew. Something it loathed, beyond all else!

The ancient enemy.

It sensed… Time Lord.

* * *

Whatever Vylena had done to the chronon accelerator was enough to get them into the Vortex, and make sure they were protected from aging to death.

But… unfortunately… it still hadn't exactly  _worked._

"We're not going anywhere!" said Vylena, looking around themselves, a little panicked. "This isn't right. It can't be right."

"The Wyorin must have a chronic element," Angela said. "It interfered with the chronons in the machine, leaving us stranded!"

Jack cleared his throat. "Actually… I think  _I_ interfered."

They all turned to stare at him.

"You?!" they cried.

Jack shrugged, and gave them a grin that was a thousand times more confident than he really felt. "Told you — man who can't die," he replied. "Wanna guess how it's done?"

It didn't take them long to work it out.

"I should have known!" said Fexia. "It's all over him. Fixed point in time."

"I think we were a little too busy trying to fight off the Wyorin," said Angela, "to notice anything  _else_  wrong, nearby us."

Vylena bit her lower lip, looking at the Vortex around them. "So… how do we get out of this?"

That was the part Jack didn't have a clue about.

"And what's to stop the Wyorin from following us here, and eating us up?" Fexia added. "It's not like the Wyorin couldn't use the same trick we did, to get out of that room."

Angela shuddered. "Don't look now," she said, pointing, "but Fexia's right."

They all turned to look where Fexia was pointing.

And saw the black cloud racing through the vortex, towards them.

"Oh, boy," Jack muttered.

"We're sitting ducks, out here!" said Vylena. She began pushing at the sides of their protective Vortex-bubble. "How do we make this thing move?"

Jack pulled her back. "Pop this thing, and we'd all age to death in seconds."

"Except you, Mr. Fixed Point," Fexia grumbled.

"And if we don't die, now, we'll die when the Wyorin gets here!" Angela insisted. "If we die, at least the Wyorin will have to scour the universe, looking for the next three Slayers to be born, instead of being all-powerful right now. That's got to count for  _something_!"

Jack cringed. Opened his mouth to reply.

When suddenly, the Wyorin darted to the right.

And faded from view.

Everyone in the bubble hanging in the Vortex looked at where the Wyorin had been. Then at each other.

"Does it usually do that?" Jack asked.

Fexia's jaw had dropped open, in shock. "I've never seen  _anything_  distract a Wyorin from a Slayer," she admitted. "I didn't know it was possible!"

A flash of silver streaked through the Vortex. Disappeared, quickly as it had arrived.

Followed by the Wyorin, racing after it.

"What… was that?" said Vylena.

"Not a blue police box," Jack replied. "So… could be anyone."

Although… Jack had the odd feeling that the silver ship, though he'd only gotten a brief glance at it, was… vaguely familiar.

"Police box?" said Fexia. "What the hell is a police box?"

Jack tried to answer.

When the vortex shuddered, around them.

A noise whipped up, nearby, booming in all their ears.

And, in the blink of an eye, something zipped past their bubble — so close, the bubble actually bounced off the outside. It disappeared, momentarily. Then suddenly popped back into existence, racing the other way. Straight towards them.

"It can't be…" said Jack, staring at it.

The ship disappeared.

Then, with a booming roar of engines, the whole ship materialized around the trio — a sleek silver space-ship interior, 61st century decor, but adorned with tasteful curtains and decorations from all different eras.

And a set of books, along one wall, that contained information long thought to be lost to the universe.

The vortex-bubble popped, around them, as the ship fully materialized.

"Hey there," came a voice from the pilot's seat of the ship. The tall, blond girl looked back and grinned at the people she'd just picked up. "Need a rescue?"

Jack laughed.

"Jenny!" he said. "Knew that space ship looked familiar."

* * *

"Black smoke," Seo repeated, musing over everything she'd just heard. She bit her lower lip, thinking very hard. "A while back, when I was still traveling around with Aunt Dawn, there was this…" She stopped. Looked at Sineya, a little concerned. "Actually… never mind."

"Tell me," Sineya said.

Seo hesitated. Then, "There was a box. I found it in the 22nd century, while trying to fight off some demon or other. Looked like it had been buried for ages. Filled with… shadow puppets and whatnot. My aunt grabbed it away from me and told me that Mom had used that same box, back in 2003. She'd been chained to a wall and nearly possessed by some… living black smoke."

Sineya's eyes went wide.

"Like me," said Sineya.

"Yes, that was the general idea," Seo agreed. "At any rate, my aunt and I threw that box into the sun. Figured Mom's legacy is better for the Slayers than the legacy of some evil black smoke."

Seo stopped.

Remembering… what had happened to Mom…

Looked away.

"I can feel it," said Sineya. "Every moment. It drove the baby insane, trying to tear her apart from the inside out. But… the Doctor said… she could hold it back." Sineya shuddered. "I can't. I'm… just… human."

Seo grabbed Sineya by the shoulders.

"And that's a brilliant thing to be!" Seo said. Smiling, kindly, at her. "My aunt's just human, and she stopped the universe from ending! And Mom, she's also…" The smile tumbled off her face. "She…  _was_ … just human…"

Seo was quiet for a long time.

"Mom," Seo said, "was an amazing superhero. People still remember her, way in the future. She saved the world more times than you can count, she changed the whole way the Slayer worked, she brought hope to countless numbers of people, everywhere…" She wiped tears away from her eyes, trying to stay strong. "And she was human. She always said… that was what made her able to beat the First and the Mayor and Glory and everyone. Her humanity."

Sineya looked Seo up and down.

Carefully.

"But  _you_ … are not…?" Sineya began.

"Not completely," Seo admitted. She looked down at the ground, slumping. "Maybe that's why I got burned away by the Weapon in my head, while you're able to stand up to the Wyorin in yours. Because… I'm not human enough."

For a few long seconds, neither said anything.

Then Sineya took Seo's hand in hers.

"You know… what it's like," said Sineya, looking into Seo's eyes — as if reading her. "You've felt… the struggle."

Seo just nodded.

"Then help," Sineya pleaded. "I can't stand…!" She put her free hand up to her head. "The Slayer screams, all the time, with the echo of a thousand dying voices and there's never anybody to answer. But the Wyorin… just laughs. Cruel, cold, calculating. As it hunts me through my own mind. Through my dreams!"

Seo tried to think up some way she could help.

But… problem was… she didn't really know.

Seo had never even heard of the Eminence, much less the Wyorin!

"Did Father… I mean, did the Doctor ever come up with any ideas about how to cure the Wyorin?" said Seo. "He must have come up with something, if he knew you were like this."

Sineya crumpled against the ground.

And shook her head.

"He… doesn't know," she said. "He left before… I ever… became…"

Seo could see the terror on Sineya's face, as she remembered what had happened to her.

"I found redemption," said Sineya. "And it destroyed me."

"Why?" said Seo. "What happened?"

"Five times, the Doctor nearly saved that baby," Sineya whispered. "Five times, he nearly made it to his blue hut, to give her to me and try to find a way to quell the Wyorin inside her. But always, he returned without her." She looked up at Seo. "The last time, I followed him to the realm of the Shadow Men. I found him debating whether or not to take that baby. I tried to make him see sense."

"But he couldn't risk both the universe and the human race," Seo guessed, "for one baby."

It made her feel very small.

Very cold.

She'd been created to destroy the universe, too. Would her father have done the same thing to her, when she'd been a baby, if he'd had all his memories? Was the Slayer the same as her, or was the Slayer something different?

Seo remembered watching her universe fall apart around her.

Perhaps… if her father  _had_  killed her, back when she was a baby… that universe would still be alive.

Mom certainly would be.

"The Shadow Men returned while I was trying to make him see reason!" Sineya said. "They caught us. Restrained us. We watched them…"

She shivered.

Then jerked upright, grabbing Seo by the hands. Seo cried out, as the memory slithered through their joined hands, and stabbed into her mind…


	9. Chapter 9

_"You," Sineya spat at the Shadow Men, struggling at her restraints. "You murdered my husband!"_

_The Shadow Men were impassive, as they handled the baby. They didn't even seem to care about Sineya's words. Or what they meant._

_"We seek to create a Slayer of Monsters," said one of the Shadow Men. "Your husband did not survive the transformation. He died for a noble cause."_

_"Oh, no," the Doctor said. "No, no, no, no, no! You can't just go around killing people and claim it's for the betterment of the human race! The ends do not justify the means!"_

_Sineya snapped her head around to glare at the Doctor. "When the Shadow Men say it, you object. But when you say the same about that baby, it's all right?!"_

_"I'm not doing this lightly, Sineya," the Doctor hissed. "If I let that baby live, I destroy the universe. If she dies, the Slayer will save the Earth, over and over again. I don't have a choice!"_

_"Then you agree," said the Shadow Men._

_As they took the knife._

_And plunged it into the baby's hearts. The child's screams dying down into death, as the words of their ceremony made her essence — a shadowy, black energy, sparkling with something extra — flood into a small container._

_"No!" Sineya screamed. "Stop!"_

_They didn't stop._

_The Doctor wouldn't meet her eyes, as he let history run its course._

* * *

Jenny beamed at Jack.

Then Jenny's smile fell, and she turned back to the controls on her dashboard. "Hold that thought." She began working as frantically as she could, zipping the ship through the vortex and popping out back in real space. "No time to stop, Jack. Gotta keep going, or this black-smoke thing'll catch up." She double-checked some readings, then altered her course, again.

The Slayers, meanwhile, looked a little dumbstruck.

"You two… know each other?" Angela asked, looking between Jenny and Jack.

" _This_  is what distracted the Wyorin from going after us?" Fexia said, simultaneously, pointing at Jenny. "But… she's a normal human!"

Vylena, meanwhile, had crept over to the control panel Jenny was sitting at. "The technology on this ship. It's… I mean… I've never seen anything like it!"

"And you never will again," Jenny replied, shooting her another grin. "Time machine. Bit beyond you. And to answer the rest of your questions — of course I know Jack, I came here to rescue him and my sister. I'm not human, and certainly not normal. And… what's a Wyorin, when it's at home?"

"That's the big mystery," Jack replied.

Jenny shot a quizzical look back at him.

"Black smoke, seems to have a thing for turning Slayers into zombies," Jack said. "How'd you manage to distract it?"

"I've got no idea," Jenny said. "Maybe it sensed I was Gallifreyan, and assumed I was Dad. That's usually what happens with evil baddies." She looked them all over. "Where's my sister?"

"Safe," said Jack. "Or… safer than us." He sat down on the seat next to Jenny. "How'd you know we were in trouble?"

Jenny laughed. Then pointed behind her, at the glass pillar hanging out at the far end of her ship. "My sister's ship materialized on mine. Empty. And doing its best impression of terrified-child-calling-for-help."

Oh.

So that's where Oliver had gone.

"So I raced off to help," said Jenny. "And when evil black smoke started trying to kill me for no apparent reason… I figured I was getting close."

"Good little Oliver," Jack said.

"We can't just keep running," Fexia said. "It doesn't matter if the Wyorin catches this ship or not. Any of us three could change at any moment! If this is a time machine, we have to find the Creator!"

Jenny frowned.

Shot Jack a confused look.

"Forgot to mention that," Jack said. "The Wyorin's got a dormant part of itself in all the Slayers. It only emerged because the dormant part became active, for some reason. No one knows why."

Jenny paused, thinking it over.

Then, opening up a glove compartment, took out a small metal box. "Wouldn't happen to have something to do with this?"

They all looked at the box.

None recognizing it.

Jack took it, undoing the catch. Found a bunch of shadow puppets, inside. And a book, which looked like it was written in Sumerian.

"A while ago, I teamed up with this group of Slayers in the 57th century to defeat a Jigolathar Battle Fleet," Jenny told them. "One of the Slayers in their team was getting really ill, but no one could find a cause. Her friend said the sickness started when she received that box from a stranger. So I took the box and I said I'd look into the matter."

"A bunch of shadow puppets, and an old book?" said Fexia, staring at the contents. "How is  _that_  supposed to have released the Wyorin?!"

"Bet the box isn't actually a box," said Vylena. "But a portal to another world, or some-such."

Jenny sighed. "The box is normal enough," she said. "It's the puppets that are odd. Almost like… using them produces some sort of in-built psychic matrix which acts as a transport system for Slayers. The shadows the puppets create act as a sort of… block transfer interface for a time machine — except it moves people  _sideways_  through time, if you get my meaning."

The Slayers all looked at one another.

Then shook their heads, completely lost.

"You know," said Jack, thinking back, "Buffy mentioned some kind of transportation-box with shadow puppets, way back."

Jenny turned to him. "What did she say?"

"Not much," Jack admitted. "This Cartoosian Burial Casket dropped through the rift, and when Owen opened it, he found a bunch of useless junk inside. Buffy slammed the lid shut and made Tosh do a scan — because she said she'd once been teleported and nearly possessed, all as a result of a box full of nothing but shadow puppets."

For a few long seconds, everyone just let this sink in.

"Teleported and almost possessed," Fexia repeated.

"The Wyorin," Angela breathed. "She was teleported… to be possessed by the Wyorin."

Jenny yanked the lid of the box closed.

"But if Jack's right, Buffy  _wasn't_  possessed," Jenny said. "Which wouldn't make sense, if Buffy was the source of the infection and there's still some Wyorin in all of you, at this point in history." She dove the ship into a nosedive, emerging from the vortex and slipping around a planet, using the gravitational force to thrust her forwards. "That box is ancient. Obviously, Buffy got it from somewhere. And it's clearly been opened many times. How many Slayers do you think opened the box and actually  _did_  get possessed by this Wyorin?"

"I've been alive a hundred and fifty years, and I've never seen any evidence of Slayers turning into black, possessed husks," Jack offered.

"That doesn't mean no one ever opened the box," said Fexia. "After all. We all have the Wyorin inside us. It's just never been active, before, the way it is now."

"It only became active when that first sick Slayer got this box," said Angela, still staring at it. "She opened it, got possessed by the Wyorin. Activated it. And when the Wyorin became active inside  _her_ , it was able to spread to all the rest of us."

Jenny noted the black mist trailing just behind her, and zipped her ship back into the vortex.

"So why's it active, now, when other Slayers have opened the box, before, and none of  _them_  have ever activated it?" said Fexia. "It's impossible."

Jenny cleared her throat.

And the others fell silent.

"Let's think about this here, for a second," Jenny instructed them. "Given how the Wyorin seems to be programmed to chase after Gallifreyans, more than anything else — I'm guessing it's some kind of weapon left over from the Last Great Time War."

Made sense to Jack.

"The Slayer originated from a baby who escaped from that War," Jack added. "Or so the Doctor says."

"And since Slayers all have a dormant bit of the Wyorin inside them," Jenny concluded, "it's pretty obvious they're connected. Probably dating all the way back to the very first Slayer."

"Where Seo is," Jack muttered. "Great."

The three Slayers behind them looked increasingly confused.

"Anyone here want to explain what the 'Last Great Time War' is," said Fexia. "Or how, exactly, we Slayers originated from a baby?"

"Long story," Jenny and Jack called back.

"So… what?" said Jack, to Jenny. "You think the Wyorin was concentrated inside one-girl-in-all-the-world, until Buffy activated all the Slayers, thus spreading the Wyorin out the way it is now?"

Jenny paused.

Reflecting.

"No," Jenny decided. "The box dates back to before Buffy was born, and it was clearly opened before her. If no one turned into black husk monsters before the 57th century, something must have happened way back in time, to get rid of most of the Wyorin. Except for this box. The Wyorin influence over the Slayers must have been building every time someone opened the box, until it reached a critical point. In the 57th century."

"Someone in the past found a way to defeat the Wyorin?" Angela cried. Her eyes full of hope. "How? Who? How can we get rid of it?"

Jenny's eyes shone, with sudden inspiration.

As she sharply swerved her ship around, and accelerated it across the top of the vortex.

So it bounced off the edge.

"How about we keep ourselves hidden," Jenny proposed, "and find out where it heads, next?"

Jack raised his eyebrows at her, quizzically.

"Common sense, Jack," said Jenny, with a shrug. "If the Wyorin isn't busy chasing us, and can't find any more Slayers hanging around the vortex to absorb… guess where, in time, it'll want to go?"

"To the person who defeated it," Vylena realized. "To get another chance to defeat them."

Jenny grinned, even wider.

As they all watched the Wyorin, in the vortex, pause. Confused at its sudden inability to sense them.

Then change direction, racing down the vortex and back into the past.

All the way to the First Slayer.


	10. Chapter 10

Sineya dropped Seo's hands, suddenly.

Her head snapping towards the entrance to the cave, as if… sensing something, on the wind. Something racing towards them from a long, long ways away.

"The Wyorin," Sineya breathed.

"Yes, I know — I'm still trying to work out a way to help you with that!" Seo said. She put her hands up to her head, weaving them through her hair. "Just… give me a bit of time to work this all out."

"No, the… Wyorin!" said Sineya, jumping to her feet. Backing away from the entrance to the cave. "It's… coming. Here. Again!"

Seo frowned.

"I'm sorry?" she asked.

Sineya scrambled, trying to find words to describe what she knew to be true. But the image didn't translate into words she knew.

"Traveling down… a tunnel of… moments that have happened and will happen," Sineya said, closing her eyes. "It's coming back. Like the demons who appear in our world — to undo a mistake."

Seo thought this through.

Her face bent and twisted, as she tried to sort it all out.

Sineya grabbed Seo by the arm, not having time for this. Dragged her upright. "Coming!" She turned and began to run, Seo stumbling behind her. "You led it here! To me!"

" _I_  led it…?" Seo's eyes lit up. "The blackness in the Vortex, around the 57th century! And those Slayers were all pretty desperate. What if…?" She skipped, as she suddenly worked it out. "Yes! That's it! That's what must have happened! In the 57th century, the Wyorin must have activated inside the Slayers, somehow. It used the chronon accelerator to come back in time, and—"

Seo dug her heels into the dust.

Stopping Sineya in her tracks.

"Wait," Seo said. Eyes gleaming. "Did you just say… it was coming back here to undo a mistake?"

Sineya could feel it… almost taste it… in the air.

She knew it was true.

She nodded.

"By 'mistake', it could mean letting me go," Seo reasoned. "Since I'm part-Slayer, part-Time Lord, and part-busy-body-who-gets-on-everyone's-nerves." She tilted her head to the side. "But… Aunt Dawn said other Slayers opened that box, before Mom. And I'm pretty sure if any of them had turned into burnt, smoking husks with Dalek brains, Giles would have found some mention of that in the Watcher diaries."

Sineya looked at Seo, blankly.

No idea what she was talking about, and — after spending so long fighting back the demons inside her own mind — without the mental energy left over to try to make sense of it.

"The Wyorin is coming for  _me_ ," Sineya told her.

"Yes!" Seo agreed, with a wide grin. "That's just what I was getting at. Don't you see? You must do something, right here, right now, that destroys most of the Wyorin, and traps the rest of it inside some sort of… sideways timeline, or mirror…"

Seo's jaw dropped.

As she reached into her pocket, and took out a small, ornate mirror.

"Mirror dimension," Seo breathed. "Like on Draconia." She looked between the mirror, and Sineya.

Then grabbed Sineya by the shoulders, and pulled her into an excited hug.

"That's it!" said Seo. She pulled out of the hug. "Oh, I'm brilliant! That's how to defeat the Wyorin. We wait until it gets inside you, and it'll meet its earlier self." She clapped her hands together. "Kerpow! Blinovitch limitation effect!" Waved the mirror. "Everything that's left… we put into this mirror. Maybe use some of your Shadow Men magic to keep it trapped."

Sineya shook her head. "Ker… pow?"

"Yes, it's Blinovitch," Seo explained, hurriedly. "When an older you travels back in time to meet a younger you… there shouldn't be two of you around at the same time. So, second you touch… bam! Out of existence!"

"Touch?" said Sineya.

"Yes, touch!"

Sineya stared at Seo, astounded that — despite all her fancy words — she could miss the obvious.

"The Wyorin is nothing," Sineya said. "It is the shadow. It cannot 'touch'."

"It can't…" Seo repeated.

Then her face fell.

And she stepped back, dejected.

"Right, can't touch," Seo muttered to herself. Looking down into the face of the mirror. "Should have thought of that. No Blinovitch. No bang. Not unless it manifested in some… kind of physical…"

The mirror reflected Sineya's image.

And Seo looked up.

A small smile on her face.

"Hang on," said Seo. "Back in the cave. Did you say… the Wyorin hunts you through your dreams?"

* * *

_The Shadow Men regarded the container which held the baby's soul. Discussing the possibilities for where to infuse it. Their intended had to be strong — a fighter who struggled against impossible odds, and still won._

_It could not be a weakling, like Thairu._

_This first Slayer would be the basis for all who came after. They needed to pick the right person, or all would be lost._

_"I'll do it," the Doctor chimed in._

_They all looked up._

_"Well, be fair," the Doctor continued, "you killed a baby girl. That means, if your Slayer's human, it'll wind up being female. No way round that!"_

_The Shadow Men regarded the Doctor with narrowed eyes._

_"But," the Doctor continued, "I'm not human. Stick her in me, and I'll be your champion! Can't go wrong with that, can you?"_

_Sineya gritted her teeth, angrily. "What do you think you're doing?!" she hissed at the Doctor. "Do you want to die?!"_

_"Hopefully, it won't be that bad," the Doctor muttered back. "If I get back to my TARDIS, I might be able to neutralize most of the effects before the Wyorin destroys me. Then, hopefully, I can work out some sort of… cure."_

_"You said there was no cure!"_

_The Doctor's face went very sad. "One advantage of being alone," he whispered. "No one left alive to mourn me."_

_Sineya struggled against her restraints, as the Shadow Men came for the Doctor._

_She wouldn't let him do this!_

_Never!_

_"Sineya, if I don't, you're the next obvious choice," the Doctor told her. "And — trust me — you don't want to deal with the Wyorin trying to possess you. It won't be a pleasant experience."_

_"I'm not losing someone else to the Shadow Men!" Sineya cried. "I won't!"_

_Too late._

_As the Doctor was dragged from his spot beside her, and hauled up by the Shadow Men, preparing the ritual with their prayers and incantations. As they began the ceremony to sacrifice the Doctor and create their Slayer._

_Just as they had with Thairu._

_Just as they had…!_

_Something inside Sineya snapped._

_And she screamed, with a surge of strength and terror and sheer blind stubborn willpower, and jerked the bonds covering her hands hard enough against the wall that the restraints snapped against a sharp rock, coiled back._

_And Sineya jumped up._

_"No more killing!" Sineya screamed, grabbing up the rock and charging at the Shadow Men. They didn't have a chance to react, before she began to attack them. Hitting and striking and slamming her rock as hard as she could. "Not one more murder! Not one more death! Never ever again!"_

_Sineya never did figure out how she won._

_The fight should have been impossible. The Shadow Men were powerful enough to stop her with just a single thought. The Doctor had volunteered himself to be the sacrifice._

_But Sineya would not let it end like that._

_She had already made up her mind. No matter what the cost, no matter how hard she had to scratch with her fingernails or kick or bite, no matter how many heads she had to bludgeon with her rock — she would save her friend — the Doctor — from the Shadow Men._

_This was her redemption._


	11. Chapter 11

 

"Got the coordinates," said Jenny, plugging them into her ship. "Back in Earth's ancient history."

Jack squinted at them.

Whistled.

 _"Way_  back," Jack agreed. Turned to the other Slayers in Jenny's ship. "You think the Slayer's just three thousand years old? Get a load of this."

They came up behind him.

Staring at the date, as they tried to process just what it meant.

"That's… but that can't be…!" said Angela.

Fexia turned to Jack. "Just… how much of Slayer history is a lie? You said… Buffy was real."

"Definitely," Jenny volunteered. "I met her."

"To cut a long story short," said Jack, "right around 2003, the Slayer Line was nearly wiped out, and all their records were destroyed. Thus, any evidence the Slayer had existed before that point was… gone." He shrugged. "That's where you got your history mixed up."

He paused.

Then added, "Well, that and… Seo. Although, you're right, she  _does_  look a lot like Buffy. Easy mistake to make."

"Time to rescue Seo, and meet the First Slayer!" said Jenny, beaming as her ship raced forwards. "Love seeing new things like this. Just love…!"

Which was when the ship bucked and jolted.

And threw them all to the ground.

* * *

Seo grabbed the gourd back from Sineya, tossing it in the air. "Perfect!" Then spun around, tracing a circle in the dust with the toe of her shoe. "We don't have the Tarot Cards, of course, since they haven't been invented yet. But I'm hoping that won't be too much of a problem. Since we have the original Slayer, instead."

Sineya frowned.

"I don't… understand… how this magic is supposed to work," Sineya confessed. "You said… some sort of… joining spell…"

"Yes, that's right," Seo replied, finishing her circle and then spinning back to Sineya, bouncing on her toes. "Just like Mom did, when she faced down Adam! It joins you up with the spirit of all the Slayers who came before you."

"But… there are no others before me," Sineya said.

"Exactly!" Seo agreed. Waving the gourd, to make her point. "And seeing as the spell's Sumerian, it's also wildly anachronistic! But that's all beside the point. We're not doing an enjoining spell to enjoin you."

Sineya looked even more confused.

Shook her head.

"Then why…?" she asked.

"For the side effect!" Seo cried, rushing over to her, excitedly. "You said it, yourself! Hunting you through your dreams!" Her grin widened. "And when the Wyorin hunts you in your dreams… how does it look?"

Sineya shuddered.

"The shadow," she said. "The nothing. And sometimes, it's… it looks like…"

She shuddered, again.

Stepping away from Seo.

"It looks like you," Seo concluded. "Doesn't it?"

Sineya looked away.

"You don't know it, of course," Seo continued, helping Sineya back to her feet. "But the Slayer and the Wyorin are both going to keep looking like you, every time they show up in the dreams of Slayers from this point onwards." She led Sineya back towards the circle she'd drawn in the sand. "But that's our advantage. Because  _you're_  also you." She sat Sineya down, and then hopped across the circle and sat down opposite Sineya. "And you're the Slayer. And you're the Wyorin."

"What…?"

Seo set the gourd in between them. Looked into Sineya's eyes.

"Just trust me," she pleaded. "Please."

Sineya hesitated.

Then nodded, firmly. If it drove off some of the shadows inside her head, banish the darkness that was coming and save those who came after her, then… yes. She'd take the risk.

Seo beamed.

Then took Sineya's hands in hers, concentrating, hard. "Let's hope I can remember the right words," Seo muttered. She took a long, deep breath.

And Sineya felt something stir, deep down inside.

As if words were bubbling to the surface, speaking themselves. Words that had always been inside of her. Words that the Slayer within seemed all too eager to offer.

"Spiritus, the spirit," Sineya breathed.

Feeling the power surge inside of her.

"Animus, heart," Seo added.

"Sophus, mind," they both said, together. "Manus. The hand."

Their voices stretching out through space and time and ages. Stretching and bending as the power built, and the Wyorin was coming, racing through time towards them.

The gourd cracked, as light began to glow within it. Illuminating the cave in a bright light. The shadows of Sineya were thrown against the wall, in the blaze of light. Sineya felt Seo squeeze her hand, in reassurance. And continued.

"We enjoin," Seo continued, "that we may inhabit—"

"—the vessel," Sineya said, as she felt the words rising of their own accord to her tongue. "The hand. Sineya, first of the Ones."

"And all the forces within her," Seo added. "We implore thee: admit us! Bring us to the vessel! Emerge in dreams and show your true form!"

A white flash, throughout the cave!

And Sineya felt herself going dizzy, the world around her losing focus, her hands falling away from Seo's, as she struggled to try to hold onto herself…

* * *

Sineya found herself in dreams.

A burst of sunlight.

Sineya turned. She was outside. In the spot where she'd once seen that blue box appear from nowhere. The place where she'd met the strange man called the Doctor. Now empty and bare.

Footsteps behind.

Sineya spun around. Her breath caught in her throat.

As she found herself facing a perfect replica… of herself. Except that nothing lurked behind those eyes except primitive savagery. Hatred. Insanity.

This wasn't her.

"The Wyorin," Sineya breathed, stumbling backwards.

The Wyorin didn't speak. Just snarled, then surged at her, hands grabbing and clawing at her, trying to strike a killing blow. Sineya ducked the charge, rolling out of the way, then leapt up.

And ran.

Fast as she could, away from the monster inside herself.

"Get away from me!" Sineya shouted at it. "I can't stand having you inside—!"

The Wyorin leapt at Sineya.

And Sineya barely had time to roll out of the way.

Then leapt to her feet, and sprinted.

She ran out of the desert and into landscapes that held no meaning. Large wooden structures with stones laid beneath her feet, in the shape of a path, and men and women holding fires in metal boxes to light their way through the fog. Large sloping stone fortresses and people with long beards nearby and strange clothes nearby. Hanging gardens with draping flowers and plants, complete with white stone arches and rivers running through it.

Even black night streets with people dressed as dragons, and skies that illuminated as if from exploding firestorms.

And in every place, one girl battling back monsters. One girl, never noticing Sineya nearby, fighting to defend the world she called her own. Sineya wanted to help them.

But she dared not stop.

Not when the Wyorin was ready to swallow her up and destroy anything left of her, still inside.

"Dreams," Sineya realized, after a while of running around through the dizzying landscapes. "I'm… running through the dreams of other Slayers, who'll come after me."

She didn't understand how she knew this.

But the truth was obvious, the more she ran. She was invading the dreams of other Slayers… and letting the Wyorin infect the dreams of future Slayers.

Letting the Wyorin… try to kill…!

Sineya couldn't think about that.

She just needed to get away from the Wyorin, as fast as she could. She needed to  _run._

From somewhere far, far away, Sineya could hear someone calling for her. Desperately. A voice, trying to drag her back from her nightmares. Begging for her to return.

But Sineya could not latch onto it.

She just kept running, fast as she could, away from all those other times and other places. Away from the thing she feared most, deep inside herself, the Wyorin that wanted to eat everything that was her.

The Wyorin leapt at her, again, and Sineya wasn't fast enough to dart out of the way. The Wyorin's hands clutched at her shoulders, as they rolled together — through the dreams of a thousand future Slayers — both staring into one another's eyes.

Sineya staring at her own face — but not her own face.

With a surge of strength, Sineya kicked out. Shoving the Wyorin away from her, so she toppled to the floor. Then Sineya popped back to her feet.

Looked around herself.

Trapped in a red, dim place. A world unlike any she'd ever seen before. Wailing with the cries of a thousand banished and angry spirits. There was nowhere to run, from here.

Just a snarling replica of herself, right before her.

"I'm not you!" Sineya insisted.

"Alone," the Wyorin taunted. "Always alone!"

"I had friends!" Sineya said. "I had a family. I had a home. I even had redemption — and you took it all away from me!"

Redemption.

The Doctor.

The Wyorin knew the Doctor from Sineya's mind. The same way the Slayer knew the Doctor from Sineya's mind. Both knew who he was and what he had done. Both hated him — for their own separate reasons.

The Wyorin screamed, grabbing up a sharp rock and rushing Sineya, hurling the rock towards her skull.

Then, from nowhere, someone leapt in.

Grabbed the Wyorin by the hand, twisting her around. Someone with blue eyes, light-colored hair, and a face that looked almost like Seo's — but not quite.

"Been a while since I got you in my dreams," said the woman. Her eyes flicked over to Sineya, still on the floor. "Wow — two of you, this time! That's gotta be a sign I'm getting close."

The Wyorin, in a burst of strength, twisted herself around and elbowed the woman in the stomach, then flipped the woman over her head and sent her crashing towards the sand.

But Sineya was already up and hurling herself at the Wyorin.

Leapt out, aiming a kick to the Wyorin's back that sent it sprawling, the blond woman somersaulting back to her feet and giving another spinning kick, to keep the Wyorin down.

The Wyorin gave another growl, grabbed the woman's ankle and tugged her down, too.

But Sineya grabbed the woman's arm.

And wouldn't let her fall.

She knew who the woman had to be. Just looking at the woman's face, it was so clear — this was help that Seo had conjured, on behalf of Sineya.

The spirit of the mother that Seo wept for.

Looking into those blue eyes, Sineya felt a sense of kinship towards this woman. A bond they shared, through history and the ages.

Not just a bond of blood…

But a bond through the Doctor.

As the Wyorin used the distraction to regain her advantage. Lunged herself at Sineya and the spirit. And dragged them both down into the darkest depths of Sineya's memory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I've been asked, by one of my fans, to tell everyone that Adventures of A Line Hopper is up on TV Tropes! Everyone go check it out!
> 
> (Hope this was what you wanted, Lemonlime77. Thanks for being a star!)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got someone to read Shockwave Vampires, pre-release. First review!
> 
> "I liked it a lot. It moved very fast and was very gripping. I especially liked the part about the lollipop and all the timey whimey stuff you did. Also, a really interesting and neat idea of the time-space continuum and how people travel through it and use it…" [I'm rephrasing the reviewer a little to eliminate spoilers.] "…but the best part was that character — Seo. She's a wonderful character. You should write more about her."
> 
> Hurray!
> 
> I have a few scenes to rewrite… and I need a cover image. Boo hoo, I'm a bad artist. But after that, I think I'm basically done.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy this next scene from this story! Afterwards, we get a little denouement, and then we'll be on to the next story.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

In the real world…

Sineya sat up, inside the circle.

Awake.

Saw Seo, still holding that mirror, her eyes now wide and scared. The light from the gourd dying and finally fading out completely.

Around them, just outside the circle, blackness swirled through the air. Twisting with malice and evil, hunting for both Seo and Sineya, its tendrils reaching out like fingers to undo the magical protection that surrounded them.

Sineya felt the evil inside herself rejoicing.

This close to itself.

The Slayer inside her reached for it. Wanted it. Power. Knowledge! The ability to gain revenge for a world lost. A world that had betrayed her.

The Slayer wanted the Wyorin to live in her. So all could be exterminated.

Sineya felt herself rushing to embrace the Wyorin that flooded back through time, almost before she realized what she was doing. Barely had time to stop herself.

"No, you don't want the Wyorin!" Sineya said, to the Slayer within her. "The Wyorin isn't power! It isn't a part of you! It's what  _destroyed_ you! You could have been a normal part of the Doctor's clan, if the Wyorin had never existed."

The Slayer within Sineya hesitated.

And Sineya began to regain control of herself.

"You scream all the time about the darkness and death that came to your world!" Sineya continued. "This is the power that destroyed your clan! It should not be a part of me — and it should not be a part of you." She bunched her hands into fists. "If I am the First Slayer of many, I will  _not_ let the Slayer be a force for evil and murder and death! And neither should  _you_!"

Sineya had said this to the Slayer many times before.

But now, as the Slayer within Sineya saw that black smoke of the Wyorin… as it felt the hatred and malevolence inside it…

For the first time, the Slayer seemed to understand.

"Enjoin with me," Sineya said to the Slayer. "Become one with me. Help me become… the Slayer."

Suddenly, in a flare, Sineya felt a bright, powerful force surging through her.

A force to rival the Wyorin.

A force to attract it.

_The trap._

Sineya stood up, suddenly calm and full of confidence. She stepped in front of the scared Seo, protectively — as the yellow light of this Slayer force surged through her, illuminating her skin, her face, and even her eyes.

"We are mind," Sineya said. "We are spirit." She stepped forwards, addressing the black spirit surrounding them. "She gives power. I give heart."

The black spirit pulled back, just a little.

Intrigued.

"Together, we are the storm — the power of the First Slayer," said Sineya. "Entwined. We are the form you wear in dreams." She raised up her hand. "I restore that form to you."

The black spirit tried to pull away.

But the bright light from Sineya encompassed it, solidified it, as the blackness rushed together into a perfect replica of Sineya herself. The one from dreams, with the hateful eyes and the desire only to kill and destroy.

"You are inside me," Sineya said. Stepping towards her replica. "And outside me. You are the Wyorin." She lunged forwards, in a burst of movement too fast for her replica to catch. "And so am I!"

The moment she touched her replica, a scream rose through the air.

A scream from herself, as something burned deep down inside.

A scream from the Wyorin.

A scream from the distant future, where so many had fallen, enslaved to the Wyorin's touch.

The Wyorin twisted and writhed, within Sineya's form. Trying, in vain, to change itself back into smoke and shadows and nothing. But Sineya and the Slayer stepped forwards, letting the light of their power shine through and burn away the Wyorin who'd come back in time.

"That's it!" said Seo, now suddenly behind Sineya. "You've disentangled it!"

"The Wyorin is dead," said Sineya.

She found herself suddenly swung around, to look right at Seo. "Not quite," said Seo, with a grin.

And shoved the mirror in Sineya's face.

A mirror that was a pool of water, sucking her into another world.

Sineya screamed, as she felt herself yanked and torn apart, so she could almost no longer stand.

As the Wyorin within herself, finally disentangled from Sineya and the Slayer, was pulled from the very depths of herself, and shoved deep down inside that mirror.

"The Wyorin!" came a stranger's voice, echoing through the background. "Seo, you did it!"

Sineya didn't have the energy to look at the newcomers.

Just fell, as blackness overtook her.

The last thing she heard — Seo's voice. Saying, "No.  _She_  did."

* * *

Angela knelt down by the wall, picking up the shadow puppets from the ground.

"At which point, I remembered that when Mom defeated Adam," Seo continued to explain to her sister and Jack, "the enjoining spell created a version of the Slayer who infected her dreams and tried to hunt her. So I did the same spell…"

"To give the Wyorin form, so it could touch!" said Jenny. "Oh, of course! And the limitation effect would have severely weakened the Wyorin inside of Sineya, as well."

"Which allowed me to use my Draconian mirror," Seo agreed, showing it off, "to send the Wyorin into a sort of… mirror dimension." She looked back into the mirror, thoughtfully. Watching the Wyorin and the images of the Shadow Men that had come from Sineya's own nightmares, behind its surface. "Just need some place to put it."

Angela raised up the shadow puppets. "And put these."

"Oh, those are probably just side effects of the psychic forces in Sineya's mind," Seo dismissed, waving them away. "Completely harmless. No, it's the mirror I'm more concerned about. After all, mirrors are delicate things… and if this one gets smashed up, there's always a possibility that the Wyorin could escape, and—"

"A mirror dimension," Jenny cut in, looking over at the shadow puppets, "is also sometimes called a 'shadow dimension'. Isn't it?" She glanced back at Seo. "And shadows can't be broken like mirrors."

Seo looked up at Jenny.

A smile slowly spreading, wider and wider, across her face.

"Ha! That's brilliant!" said Seo, hugging Jenny tightly. "Transfer the mirror interface into one that's  _inside_  the shadows generated by those figurines! That way, if the figurines get smashed up, it'll just close the gateway, and not let the Wyorin back out!"

Jack clapped his hands, slowly.

"So, looks like all we need, now, to make history work out like it should," Jack announced, "is a metal box, and someone who can write ancient Sumerian." He turned to Fexia and Vylena. "Either of you fine ladies know ancient Sumerian?"

Seo pulled out of the hug.

Spun back around to Jack.

"Wait," Seo said. "Why Sumerian?"

* * *

Seo turned the box Jenny had shown her over in her hands. It was cracked and worn with age, but Seo recognized it clearly.

Meanwhile, Fexia had assembled the brand-new shadow puppets together into a sack, tying it into a knot at one end.

Angela and Vylena were both caring for Sineya, still unconscious from her ordeal.

"That's impossible," Seo said, still looking at the box Jenny had given her. "Aunt Dawn and I destroyed this in the 22nd century. And when I say destroyed, I mean we threw it into the sun. It couldn't have survived." She glanced back at Jenny. "How'd it wind up in the 57th century?"

"Some stranger showed up with it," said Jenny, with a shrug. "That's all I was told."

Seo put the box back down.

Scooted a little farther away from it.

"I think it's pretty clear what happened," said Jenny. She gestured at Fexia's sack of shadow puppets. "We're going to drop these off with Sineya's clan, and they'll be passed down, through the generations, along with the oral story — a cautionary tale of what happens when men muck about with forces they don't quite understand."

Jenny paused.

Her face bent into a frown.

"But… thing is," Jenny went on, "history says Sineya's people  _will_ become a patriarchal society, by the end. A cautionary tale will turn into a tale of triumph. Man over demon! And the puppets will be thought of as a source of strength."

The look on Seo's face began to turn angry.

"By the time the puppets arrive in Sumeria, they'll be thought of as a power boost for the Slayer, that can be used whenever she gets into too much trouble," said Jenny.

"A sort of… Slayer emergency kit?" Fexia asked.

"If you like," Jenny agreed. She shrugged. "And for a while, it'll seem to work. After all — the shadow dimension can only infuse so much Wyorin into any one Slayer, at a time. And any single dose won't be enough to activate the true essence of the Wyorin."

"The first few times it was used, the Wyorin would just give the Slayer a little jolt of extra power," Fexia realized. "Thus helping people to forget the truth."

"But the Wyorin's going to build up inside the Slayer Line, isn't it?" said Seo, jumping to her feet and pacing, angrily. "More and more Wyorin in every single Slayer who opens the box, until the Slayer Line reaches the tipping point." She spun back to Jenny. "And I'll bet you anything that tipping point came in 2003."

Jenny shrugged.

Seo turned away, continuing to pace, her face enraged. "That's why the First let Mom open it! The First Evil  _wanted_ Mom to get possessed by the Wyorin." She kicked a stray rock against the wall of the cave — hard enough to make a little crack in the cave wall. "I  _hate_  people who mess with my family!"

"But… if the tipping point was in the 21st century," said Fexia, to Jenny, "and Seo says she only destroyed it in the 22nd century, then how did it manage to avoid any Slayers until…?"

"Because Sunnydale turned into a giant crater in the 21st century," said Seo, turning back around to Fexia. "That box got buried. The 22nd century is when some idiot decided to dig it back up. Which is how my aunt and I found it."

Fexia nodded, slowly.

"And… how did it get to the 57th century?" Fexia asked.

No one had a good answer to that.

"Maybe… someone rescued it before it could impact with the sun," Jenny offered, a little hesitantly. "But… how anyone would know or why anyone would care…"

Seo sprinted to Fexia and grabbed the sack out of her hands.

"In that case, I'm getting rid of it, right now," said Seo. "Moment I get back to Oliver, I'm throwing every one of these shadow puppets straight into the sun. And I'm sticking around, this time, to make sure they actually wind up burned like they should be!"

Jenny was on her feet in an instant.

Her hand on the sack, as well.

"Seo," Jenny said, quietly. "Think this through. Those shadow puppets, that box… it's history. It  _happened_."

"It killed all but three Slayers by the 57th century!" Seo hissed. "Destroy it now—"

"Three Slayers are enough to carry on the Slayer Line," said Jenny. "So long as  _one_  Slayer survives, more will keep being born, and things will eventually return to normal." She tugged the sack out of Seo's hands. "But this, Seo, is your mum's history. And yours. Your sympathy towards Sineya is based on your mum learning Sineya's story, through these same shadow puppets." She gave a sad smile. "And you'd never know enough to destroy them, if you hadn't seen the effects for yourself."

Seo glared down at the bag.

But allowed Jenny to take it from her.

"I don't like it, Jenny," Seo muttered — quietly enough so that the others couldn't hear. "Someone's taking dangerous artifacts out of history, and placing them in the wrong time and place — like it's some sort of game." Her hands clenched into fists. "And it's always people  _I_  know who get hurt!"

Jenny put a hand on Seo's shoulder.

"I'll look into it," she promised. "Stop at all the libraries and do the boring research bits you hate. And if I find out anything…"

"You two figure out the mystery of the box, yet?" said Jack, as he entered the cave with a wide grin and a twinkle in his eyes.

The two sisters broke away from each other.

Tried to make it look like everything was fine.

"Just discussing the virtues of not causing massive, universe-shattering paradoxes," Jenny told him. She shot Seo a grin. "Then… I'm thinking, after Sineya wakes up and we've returned the three Slayers to the future… we make sure that box from the 57th century really  _is_  destroyed for good."


	13. Chapter 13

 

Sineya didn't know how many days passed, before she woke, again.

The spirit of Seo's mother never appeared, again. Sineya only remembered snatches of her dreams, snatches of a war swirling around her, cracking apart history, and herself too small to understand.

The Slayer still lived inside her.

Still insane.

Still screaming and desperate and savage.

But Sineya could feel that the Wyorin had left. Forever. It had met itself, back in time, and — faced with its own image, the touch of its own hand — had burned up rather than accept the truth of what it had become.

Sineya drifted in and out of consciousness.

Others arrived. Others who had strange skin and oddly shaped faces — several whom had the oddest looks of all, helping her to recover, their hands tingling with an inherent connection, which still remained between them all.

There was another one with golden hair — this one tall.

And a man with dark hair who always smiled and winked and spoke in a voice flooded with charm.

Then, a long while later, Sineya sat up.

Finally fully awake, after the ordeal. Her strength finally returning to her limbs.

In the distance, the two blond girls were in deep discussion.

"—finished delivering those shadow puppets to the nearest village," the taller one said. "They all seemed relieved that Sineya was all right. I think they missed her."

"Mom always said the Slayer was alone," Seo replied, her voice sad. "Maybe… she makes herself alone. Because she doesn't feel it's safe for anyone to be near her."

"She's awake!" cried one of the strange-looking women, nearby Sineya. The woman's eyes were slanted in a strange way, her skin smooth in a way that didn't make sense to Sineya's eyes, and while she looked human, she also seemed… other-worldly. "You pull through okay?"

Sineya sat up.

Inside her mind, the spirit of the Slayer was still screaming. Still trying to break free and smother her. Still threatening to drive her crazy.

But with no Wyorin… Sineya was herself, again.

"Yes," Sineya said. She tried to stand, and the others helped her. Steadied her, as she swayed, trying to regain her balance. "You. Seo. You saved me."

Seo spun around.

Smiled, widely. "I saved you? You saved me!" She put an arm around Jenny. "And my sister. And the universe." She nodded at the three other strangers. "And — as an encore — you saved the Slayer Line in the future!"

Sineya looked at the three strange people, around her.

She could feel the spirit of the Slayer inside them.

"The future," Sineya said. Imagining all those young girls, across the future, forced to endure what she'd endured. Forced to be the Slayer. "I never wanted to be the First Slayer. I wanted to protect, not to put others into danger. But now… all those Slayers, taking after me. Alone." She shook her head. "I never wanted that."

"Alone?" said one of the Slayers. Puzzled.

"The Slayer  _is_  always alone, right now," Seo acknowledged. "And will be for quite a while. But… it'll get better for the Slayers, in the future. I promise." She smiled. "Mom saw to that."

Sineya thought of the image of Seo's spirit-mother, from her dream.

And smiled back.

"Of course, it'll be a while," Seo admitted. "Won't happen until the 21st century, come to think of it. And before that point… you'll still have the Slayer taking on your form, driving young girls mad and sometimes even making them kill themselves."

"But that doesn't stop the Slayer from saving the world, over and over again," the charming man put in. "Safeguard of the human race."

"Now, in the 21st century, and all the way through the 57th," said one of the Slayers.

"Hope of the universe," said another. "Last line of defense against the forces of darkness!"

"And when we rebuild the Slayer Institute… we won't let them forget that the Slayer started before Buffy Summers," said the third. "With Sineya — who saved us from the Wyorin."

The taller blond woman smiled at Sineya. "And saved her own clan from more monsters than they can count."

Sineya didn't know what to say. Could feel so many emotions conflicting, within her mind. But one overpowered all the rest.

A need.

For redemption.

"I want to help the Slayers who are alone, after me," Sineya pleaded. "The ones from the future."

Everyone around her looked at one another. Not sure how to react to this.

"I've run through the dreams of future Slayers," Sineya explained. "I've seen them fight. And I've seen their solitude. The spirit of the Slayer will always push them to be alone, and will try to drive them insane. Let  _my_  spirit give them guidance."

"You want us to spread your psychic influence across the future," the tall blond asked, "so you can seek out Slayers and give them advice when they need it?"

"A helping hand," Seo whispered, her eyes lighting up, "to guide Slayers who are lost — and who set out on a quest, to find their way! Alone in the desert!"

Everyone turned to Seo.

And the tall blond buried her face in her hands. "Don't tell me you know that because it already happened to your mum!"

"And the advice Mom got from Sineya," Seo agreed, "is the reason I'm still alive! It's brilliant!"

The tall blond sighed. "Honestly — the way time wraps itself in knots around you, everywhere you go…"

"Yeah, Time hates me," Seo agreed, with a delighted grin. "I know!"

She bounced on her toes.

"But, with the future Slayers here," Seo continued, turning back to Sineya, "I think Jenny and I can find a way to make your wish come true."

* * *

The Slayers, upon returning to the future, discovered those who'd been possessed by the Wyorin had just collapsed and crumbled into dust.

Leaving only the three of them, to refound the Slayer Institute.

"It'll be hard work, but we'll do it," said Angela. She stood up, straight and tall and proud. "And this time — we'll get our history  _right._ "

"Maybe we won't quite be the unstoppable force we were in the past," said Fexia, "but… eventually, there'll be other Slayers. We'll get ourselves back to where we were before."

"Just make sure you still remember…" Seo began. Then swallowed, hard. "Buffy Summers. She's… important."

The three Slayers all promised.

And Jenny put an arm around Seo, as they left.

"She wouldn't have wanted you to blame yourself like this, you know," Jenny told her sister. "I met your mum. Beneath the legends and the hype and the apocalypse prevention — she was someone who loved you. More than anything."

Seo didn't answer.

"If your mom were here, and could see what you've just done for Sineya and the Slayer," Jack put in, retrieving his vortex manipulator, "she'd have been the proudest mom in history. It's just what she would have done."

Seo looked up.

Met his eyes with her own.

And a small smile crept back onto her face.

"What she would have done," Seo repeated. Her eyes fell back on the three Slayers, carrying on a mission to defeat the forces of darkness that lasted longer than written history. "Maybe… that's  _my_  redemption."

* * *

Many moons later, Sineya slept. Walking through her dream, the Slayer walking just behind her, as she continued to survive — alone.

Then she stepped sideways.

And found herself in someone else's dream.

"You!" Sineya cried, as she came face-to-face with the blond woman, who had been Seo's spirit mother.

The spirit-mother was wandering around a landscape not her own. Red and dusty, with bodies lying everywhere. Structures and buildings falling down around them, empty and silent, as stars twinkled overhead.

The mother had been crying. Sobbing.

She sat up, abruptly. Turning to Sineya, her eyes still red.

"My normal nightmare," said the mother. "And then the First Slayer shows up. That's just… great!"

She sniffled.

Tried to hide her tears.

"Don't cry," Sineya urged her. "Your daughter carries on in your memory. She saved the Slayers from the Wyorin. Your spirit can remain happy."

The mother stood up. "She's alive?" She ran over, grabbed Sineya by the shoulders. "Please. Please tell me she's alive! I can't stand searching and searching without knowing…!"

The mother almost broke down into tears, again.

But managed to hold herself back.

It was the first time Sineya realized… the mother she addressed  _wasn't_  dead. This mother was alive, somewhere far away. Struggling to return.

"Yes," said Sineya. "And when you find her again, you will be proud of her actions."

"I love her," said the mother. "No matter what she does. I always will." The mother looked around herself. "I always dream I'm here, when I'm scared that maybe she didn't survive. The hell I couldn't save."

The landscape looked as though it had come straight from battle.

The corpses fallen with their faces still bent in utter agony.

And one face, staring back from the center of them all.

One that the mother couldn't help but weep over.

The mother noticed where Sineya was looking. Stole a glance, herself. Then looked away. "This place was the closest I ever got to Earth," the mother breathed. "All the other hell dimensions are full of aliens and demons and all kinds of creatures, all looking weird and different and… nonhuman. But this place… everyone was human. And I came too late to save them."

Sineya understood.

She knew what the dream meant.

"You came too late to save this place," Sineya said. "You fear, when you return home, that you'll be too late to save  _her_."

"I can't save everyone," said the mother. "I get that. Just… her. Please."

Sineya stepped forwards. She felt herself united — Sineya the protector, and the Slayer within her — for one of the very first times in her life. Both aspects working to a single purpose.

As Sineya spoke.

And knew… every word was true.

"Your daughter is in danger," said Sineya. "More than she knows."

The mother nodded.

Eyes terrified.

"But this place," said Sineya. "This destruction. It's the past. And the future. Time has been traced through the lands beyond the stars, to show what has really happened. Even if the truth of time is hidden."

"Uh…" the mother said. "You wanna  _explain_  any of that?"

Sineya stepped towards the mother, slowly. Her hair wild, her eyes gleaming with intelligence. "A single act of kindness can change the course of history."

Then Sineya turned.

And stepped back into her own dream.


End file.
